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Jobs to Obama: You risk being a one-termer

From the cover of Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs available at Amazon.
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Apple founder Steve Jobs told President Obama he risks re-election because of a bad relationship with the business community, says a soon-to-be-published biography of the computer visionary.

"You're headed for a one-term presidency," Jobs told Obama in the fall of 2010, according to the biography by author Walter Isaacson that will be in bookstores next week.

The Huffington Post, which obtained an early copy of the bio, also reports that Jobs offered to do ads for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

"He had made the same offer in 2008, but he'd become annoyed when Obama's strategist David Axelrod wasn't totally deferential," writes biographer Isaacson.

From The Huffington Post account of the book:

Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama "was really psyched to meet with you," Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.

"You're headed for a one-term presidency," he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where "regulations and unnecessary costs" make it difficult for them.

Jobs also criticized America's education system, saying it was "crippled by union work rules," noted Isaacson. "Until the teachers' unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform." Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

Jobs suggested that Obama meet six or seven other CEOs who could express the needs of innovative businesses -- but when White House aides added more names to the list, Jobs insisted that it was growing too big and that "he had no intention of coming." In preparation for the dinner, Jobs exhibited his notorious attention to detail, telling venture capitalist John Doerr that the menu of shrimp, cod and lentil salad was "far too fancy" and objecting to a chocolate truffle dessert. But he was overruled by the White House, which cited the president's fondness for cream pie.

Though Jobs was not that impressed by Obama, later telling Isaacson that his focus on the reasons that things can't get done "infuriates" him, they kept in touch and talked by phone a few more times. Jobs even offered to help create Obama's political ads for the 2012 campaign. "He had made the same offer in 2008, but he'd become annoyed when Obama's strategist David Axelrod wasn't totally deferential," writes Isaacson. Jobs later told the author that he wanted to do for Obama what the legendary "morning in America" ads did for Ronald Reagan.

Apple tribute logo a Web hit

Credit: Jonathan Mak Long

When Steve Jobs resigned from Apple in August, 7,000 miles away in Hong Kong, graphic design student Jonathan Mak Long, "shocked" by the CEO's departure, did what he knew best: He created a design to honor the Apple co-founder.

The 19-year-old posted the image, the Apple logo with the bite changed to a profile of Jobs, to his Tumblr blog. Known as Jonathan Mak, he initially received about 80 notes on the image. Then word came this past Wednesday that Jobs had died, after a long battle with cancer. Mak reposted the homage, which this time caught fire on the Web, attracting an almost immediate response of 10,000 likes and reblogs on his Tumblr site and surging to 180,000 -- in one day. Comments included "awesome invention like steve jobs." One thought it should be the "new Apple logo." Another wanted to "use it as a tattoo."

Speaking in fluent English (which he said he learned from watching the TV show "Friends"), the Polytechnic University School of Design student told Yahoo! in a Skype interview that the image was a tribute to Jobs's contributions to the world: "I wanted to commemorate him. He's such an integral part of Apple. I thought it would be fitting to include him in the Apple logo." Long added, "With Jobs gone, Apple is literally missing a piece."

The artist was inspired by the uncompromising personality of the creative genius. He said of Jobs: "He had this vision that he was not afraid to commit to. That's how he broke new ground. His commitment and belief in himself is what inspire me." The designer's vision for his own work is an aesthetic that joins a simple graphic element with a richer meaning, giving the viewer, as he put it, an "a-ha moment."

The cyber tribute that became a hit, and along with attracting media attention, the logo found itself as the preferred profile pic on Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account and on merchandise featured on eBay. While the design prodigy has received several job offers, but he hasn't acted on them; "I'm still a student," he said. The artist has a portfolio of minimalist design, but don't call him an Apple fanboy. "I just got my first MacBook Pro a year ago," he admitted -- and he still doesn't own an iPhone.

Asked whether he'd gotten any response from Apple, Mak said he had emailed CEO Tim Cook but so far hadn't heard back.

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Steve Jobs, Apple Computer co-founder, dies

Steve Jobs, the innovative co-founder of Apple who transformed personal use of technology as well as entire industries with products such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computer and the iTunes music store, has died.

The Apple chairman was 56.

The iconic American CEO, whose impact many have compared to auto magnate Henry Ford and Walt Disney— whom Jobs openly admires — abruptly stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple in August 2011 because of health concerns. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

PHOTOS: Images of Jobs over the years

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, a former Apple board member, called Jobs the best CEO of the past 50 years — perhaps 100 years.

A seminal business and technology leader, Jobs' success flowed from a relentless focus on making products that were easy and intuitive for the average consumer to use. His products were characterized by groundbreaking design and style that, along with their technological usefulness, made them objects of intense desire by consumers around the world.

He was known as a demanding, mercurial boss and an almost mystical figure in technology circles as well as American popular culture. Author and business consultant Jim Collins once called Jobs the "Beethoven of business."

He was one of the figures who made Silicon Valley the capital of technological innovation and related venture capital fortunes.

His creation of iTunes as an online way to purchase music digitally helped transform the music industry and delivered a blow to the standard industry practice of packaging music in albums or CDs. With iTunes, consumers could buy individual songs for 99 cents. The music industry didn't welcome the change at first, but, after waging an intense battle against illegal music downloads, it came to rely on the business model iTunes created.

Jobs' work at Apple and other projects made him a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine in 2011 at $8.3 billion. He was No.110 on Forbes' list of billionaires worldwide and No.34 in the United States, as of the magazine's March 2011 estimates.

Unlike tech rival Bill Gates of Microsoft or business leader Warren Buffett, Jobs did not make a practice of public philanthropy. While he may have made anonymous gifts to charity, he did not publicly embrace Gates' and Buffett's call for the wealthiest Americans to pledge to donate half their fortunes.

Jobs was married to Laurene Powell Jobs, 47. He had four children, three with Powell Jobs. A fourth child, Lisa, had an early Apple computer -- a predecessor to the Macintosh -- named after her. though the family succeeded in keeping the children out of the spotlight and largely unknown to the public. He was Buddhist.

Apple, and a re-boot

Jobs dropped out of Reed College to build computers with high school friend Steve Wozniak, creating what became the Apple I computer in 1976.

With sales lagging by the 1980s, Jobs was ousted from the company's leadership in a 1985 boardroom coup led by then-Apple CEO John Sculley. He returned in 1996 after Apple bought his technology start-up, NeXT, for $400 million. Within months, Jobs took over as Apple CEO for the ousted Gil Amelio and led a major corporate turnaround.

Five years later, with the release of the iPod personal digital music player, Apple had leaped from computer maker to become the leading consumer electronics giant worldwide.

Millions of its computers and gadgets were produced in Asia and sold to U.S. and worldwide markets, making the company one of the most recognizable and beloved brand names ever.

Once on the brink of financial abyss, Apple had a market value of $350 billion — not far behind No.2 Exxon Mobil — by the time Jobs resigned as CEO in August 2011.

After his forced departure from Apple, Jobs bought what became Pixar from filmmaker George Lucas. The digital animation movie company has produced box-office hits including Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney bought the company for $7.4 billion in 2006. Jobs held a 7.3% ownership stake in Disney.

Health concerns

He was known for creating a culture of secrecy at Apple that fueled intense media speculation about the company's next product. Jobs himself introduced major products with flair at highly anticipated events that proved to be one of the company's best marketing tools.

Jobs didn't hesitate to level caustic comments at competitors, particularly Microsoft in earlier years and later Google, which he ridiculed as evil, mediocre and lacking in taste. His skewering of Microsoft was parodied in a series of TV ads featuring the characters "Mac" and "PC."

Jobs was known for firing employees in profanity-laced tantrums and reducing some subordinates to tears. Yet many of his top deputies at Apple and Pixar worked with him for years.

Jobs is listed as an inventor or co-inventor on 313 Apple patents, including the iPod's user interface.

Though he brought simple, elegant technology to the masses, the reclusive Jobs was often uncomfortable around people and rarely spoke publicly. On rare occasions when he spoke with reporters, Jobs offered few or no personal insights.

Jobs' reluctance to appear publicly led to questions about his health, as did a dramatic loss in weight and gaunt appearance.

Jobs was diagnosed with a form of pancreatic cancer in 2003. He informed Apple employees in 2004.

"No one wants to die," he said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. "And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."

Jobs' status as a corporate star put him on the covers of Time, Fortune and Forbes.

"Jobs led an enormous cultural shift of the businessman as a creative, even artistic, force," says Alan Deutschman, author of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.

"When Jobs first came on the scene, it wasn't cool to be in business," Deutschman says. "Through the 1970s, the Dow hardly moved. Being in business was seen as being a total sellout. But Jobs was young and glamorous, and gave business that image. Now, young people aspire to be in business."

The early years

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955, to unwed parents. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Calif.

The young Jobs contacted William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, to ask for parts for a class project. Impressed, Hewlett offered Jobs a summer internship.

Upon graduating from Homestead High School in Cupertino, Calif., in 1972, Jobs briefly went to Reed College in Portland, Ore. After a stint as a video-game designer at Atari, Jobs trekked to India in 1974, where he embraced Eastern culture and religion. Shortly after that, he lived in a commune in California.

In 1975, Jobs began hanging out with the Homebrew Computer Club and a friend from high school, Steve Wozniak. Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak — the "two Steves," as they became known — co-founded Apple Computer in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976.

By 25, Jobs was a millionaire. Jobs' first go-around at Apple was highlighted by the creation and introduction, in 1984, of the Macintosh, a revolutionary personal computer with an inviting graphical user-interface and mouse that popularized PCs for the masses.

The influence of the Beatles ran deep to Apple's core, too. Jobs presented a Mac to Yoko Ono, wife of the late John Lennon, and was ensnared in a long-running trademark lawsuit with the music group's Apple Corps label. It was settled in 2007.

In a 1996 interview in San Francisco, Jobs offered a glimpse of his hopes to mirror the success of Walt Disney and George Lucas. "Computers are commodities with a six-month shelf life," he said. "Classics like Snow White and Fantasia are passed from generation to generation."

Wozniak said Apple is a reflection of Jobs' creative daring.

"He helped it achieve incredible things in music, smartphones, tablets and retail, while still making great computers," said Wozniak, who said he and Jobs occasionally talk.

Leander Kahney, author of Inside Steve's Brain, said Jobs reconciled conflicting personality traits into an eclectic business philosophy.

"Jobs embraced the personality traits that some considered flaws — narcissism, perfectionism, total faith in his intuition — to lead Apple and Pixar to triumph against steep odds," Kahney says. "In the process, he became a self-made billionaire."

Apple gets edge with use of voice-recognition technology

Executive Phil Schiller speaks about the voice recognition app called Siri during the company's presentation on Tuesday.

The voice-driven Siri virtual personal assistant that Apple touted as a major feature in the brand new iPhone 4S says a lot about how far speech recognition in phones has come.

Siri not only recognizes what it is that you are asking — "wake me up at 6:30", "any decent sushi restaurants around here — but it understands the intent of your words and can respond accordingly.

Siri relies on artificial intelligence and is tightly integrated with the various apps on the phone. Results are tailored based on your location and through partnerships with the likes of Yelp.

Mike Thompson, who heads up the mobile business at Nuance Communications, called the Siri news "an exclamation point on the mainstreaming of the technology." Adds Dan Miller, senior analyst at Opus Research, "I'm calling it an inflection point of sorts."

As a leader in the field, Nuance has partnerships with Apple (and Siri), and several other companies, and is the outfit behind Dragon Naturally Speaking speech-recognition products for computers and mobile.

Analyst Shyam Patil of Raymond James estimates that Apple is paying Nuance a recurring $5 million to $10 million in revenue every quarter over the life of an estimated two to three year contract. "If anyone can get speech right, its Apple," he says.

Of course Nuance is by no means alone. A veritable who's-who of tech companies including Google, Microsoft and IBM spend a lot of time on speech-related research, as do startups such as Vlingo.

"Our vision is complete ubiquity of this type of technology," says Mike Cohen who leads the speech technology efforts at Google. That means on every application, webpage, social network, in the car and so on. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said that 25% of Google searches on Android phones are triggered by voice. Along with voice search, Android users can employ voice actions ("note to self -- grocery list: banana, milk, eggs, pizza") to get things done.

Until its inclusion as part of the iPhone 4S, a version of Siri was available on iPhones as a third party app. Apple bought the Siri startup in April 2010.

Though the app disappears, the promise of the Siri approach is in the way it is tied into the very fabric of the 4S and the way in which you can pose a question. For example, "do I need an umbrella today?" yields the same result as "what is the weather like today?"

"Its not that you get to use your voice, but you get to talk in a way that you feel comfortable with," Miller says. "The systems themselves are less robotic, it doesn't seem as gimmicky. There is a true Star Trek effect."

Good as it has gotten, voice recognition is far from perfect. Apple says Siri on the iPhone 4S is in beta. Siri isn't completely hands-free either. Though it can help cut down on certain steps as you navigate tasks, a typical Siri interaction may involve a combination of using your voice, looking at results with your eyes and touching the phone.

Thompson says: "We're in the 4th inning—the rate of change and innovation is faster than ever before in speech. The accuracy and performance is getting better. (In the) next five innings we'll see greater and greater natural language."

Apple’s Stock: Looks Like Jobs’s Departure Was Priced In.

Apple shares are down about 5% in after-hours trading following the news that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO.

This is to be expected: 5% is not actually a large drop, considering the importance of Jobs to the company he founded. Your Digits blogger doesn’t go in much for stock pricing, but it seems to her that this rather small selloff is simply an emotional reaction.

That’s not to say that the loss of Steve Jobs as CEO should be taken lightly, although he will remain as chairman.

What your Digits blogger means by that is this: Anyone who did not price Jobs’s coming departure into their purchase of Apple shares has not been paying attention.

Now, maybe there will be questions about how much Apple should have disclosed to shareholders. But the fact of the matter is that Jobs has been on medical leave since January. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant two years ago, as Yukari Kane mentions in her story about the resignation.

Apple presents an air of magic, and everyone involved with Apple wants Steve Jobs to be healthy. But this is a serious situation, and investors by this point should have accepted it as such.

Apple’s share price is astronomical, it’s true. But that isn’t just because of Steve Jobs. It’s because Apple has been producing – increasing its share in the PC market, continuing it performance in smartphones and MP3 players, and just trouncing everyone when it comes to tablets. If Jobs weren’t ill, one could imagine that the stock price would be a good deal higher.

Of course, some could point to Apple’s previous stint apart from Steve Jobs – when the company nearly failed before bringing him back as chief executive. In that case, however, Apple was having trouble even before Jobs’s departure. It certainly was not coming off a string of hit after hit after hit.

A logical pricing of Apple’s stock might take into account the importance of Jobs, but it should also account for the fact that Apple appears to have a pretty good thing going.

Plus, Jobs has known for a while that he is facing a serious illness. There hasn’t been anything stopping him from making sure a long-term strategy is in place. He is going to remain as chairman, and the new CEO, Tim Cook, has been running day-to-day operations for some time.

So given the fact that Jobs is so identified with Apple, a 5% drop seems unsurprising and not terribly big. Jobs’s departure, while sad, appears to have been mostly priced in.

Jobs battles with rare pancreatic cancer, privacy

Steve Jobs has battled a rare form of pancreatic cancer for years, undergoing a series of aggressive treatments and surviving longer than many others with the disease.

Jobs, 56, has a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. This kind of tumor accounts for only about 5% of the 43,000 pancreatic cancers diagnosed each year, and is generally more curable than more common types of pancreatic cancer.

In general, patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed only after the disease has spread to vital organs, and die within a year or less, says Zev Wainberg, a gastrointestinal oncologist with UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center.

Neuroendocrine tumors, which arise in hormone-producing cells of the pancreas, typically grow much more slowly, allowing patients to live at least two or there years, says Wainberg, who hasn't treated Jobs.

Unless the disease is completely eradicated, however, the cancer eventually takes a turn for the worse, growing much more quickly, Wainberg says.

While no one can say how Jobs will fare, "I suspect we will not be talking about years" of additional survival, Wainberg says.

With Jobs' work ethic and strong love of his job, doctors say his decision to resign as Apple CEO suggests that he must be feeling very ill.

"Given his will to dominate, you'd have to speculate that he must not be doing well," says James Abbruzzese, a pancreatic cancer expert at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Abbruzzese, one of the USA's leading pancreatic cancer specialists, consulted on Jobs' care early in the course of his treatment, but has not participated in Jobs' treatment in several years.

Jobs has undergone aggressive treatment for the cancer, which he first acknowledged in 2004. Jobs had surgery to treat the original cancer, then underwent a liver transplant in 2009.

That suggests that his original tumor had spread from his pancreas to his liver, in spite of surgery to remove it, says Margaret Tempero, a pancreatic cancer expert at the University of California-San Francisco and former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Liver transplants for this kind of tumor are "occasionally successful, but it's a real long shot," Tempero says.

Patients who receive organ transplants must take drugs to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ, Tempero says. But because these drugs also suppress the immune system, they can allow the original cancer to re-emerge and attack either the new liver or other organs.

In rare cases, a liver transplant may cure the patient's cancer, if it hasn't spread around the body, Abbruzzese says.

More often, the transplants helps restore normal liver function, giving patients a few more years with a better quality of life, Abbruzzese says.

These neuroendocrine tumors, which develop in the pancreas' hormone-producing cells, tend to grow more slowly than other kinds of pancreatic cancers, making them more curable, experts say.

The fiercely private Jobs has said relatively little about his health problems, although he did acknowledge his bout with cancer during a commencement speech at Stanford University. "No one wants to die," he said. "And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."

While liver transplants can be life-saving, they aren't always successful. That's because the original tumor can spread to the new liver. Or, treatment for the main cancer can damage the liver. Immediately after surgery, the body also can reject the transplanted liver, experts say.

Some people with neuroendocrine tumors survive for decades, experts say.

Actor Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer in 2009. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti died of the disease in 2007. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also has had pancreatic cancer.

Doctors don't know what causes most cases of pancreatic cancer, although heavy smoking increases the risk by two to three times, experts say. Diets filled with meat and fat also may contribute to the disease. Those at greater risk include men, African-Americans, people older than 50, diabetics and those with a family history of pancreatic cancer. Chronic inflammation of the pancreas and exposure to certain chemicals also can cause the disease.

Scientists are actively studying ways to find the disease earlier, when it might be more curable, by looking at families in which several people have developed the cancer. Researchers also are searching for genes that may be involved. In January, scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore announced that they had deciphered the genetic code, or genome, of neuroendocrine tumors, which they hope will lead to better treatments.

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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Reports Record Earnings Thanks to iPhone and iPad

Apple® (NASDAQ:AAPL) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly earnings of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

“We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2011 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on July 19, 2011 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq311. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.