• Steve Jobs Next to President Barack Obama & Looking Well

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, News, Rants & Raves, Steve Jobs 3 Responses

    Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs sat directly beside President Barack Obama at a special dinner featuring some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley.

    We have earlier learned that Steve Jobs would meet with President Barack today. In a photo posted on the official Flickr account of The White House, Jobs can be seen sitting to the left of Obama as the table of tech luminaries engages in a toast. Others at the dinner included Google Chief Executive (and soon-to-be executive chairman) Eric Schmidt, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.

  • Steve Jobs Still Actively Involved in Apple Day to Day

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Rants & Raves, Steve Jobs 1 Response

    The WSJ reports that Steve Jobs is “still calling the shots from home”.  He’s actively involved in iPad 2 and iPhone 5 according to the report.

    The 55-year-old Mr. Jobs, whose ailment hasn’t been disclosed, has been taking business meetings at home and on the phone, these people said.

    He also has been seen on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., campus and in public in Palo Alto, Calif., with a company executive, said people familiar with the matter.

    Among products he is continuing to work on are the next version of the iPad tablet computer, expected out in the next couple of months, and a new iPhone, expected to be released this summer, said two of these people.

    Jobs was apparently seen on campus last week and looked like he was in great shape according to an author who was visiting Apple’s campus.  Today’s WSJ report may have been to dispel rumors that Jobs was hospitalized.

  • 25 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Bought Pixar

    // Gradly // blog, Pixar, Steve Jobs 1 Response

    On February 3rd, 1986 Steve Jobs acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. Jobs, who was forced to resign from Apple, renamed the group “Pixar”. After some years of initial business struggle, the rest is history: Pixar is now the most successful animation studio in the world with masterpieces such as Toy Story, Up and Wall-E in their portfolio. The company became a subsidiary of Walt Disney in 2006.

    From the unofficial Pixar blog:

    When Pixar went beyond the conference and animation-festival circuit and into the multiplex with Toy Story in 1995, it changed the art and business of animation overnight. True, if Pixar hadn’t made the first computer-animated feature film, someone else eventually would have. But if Toy Story hadn’t been a superlative film, it’s doubtful computer graphics would have taken over feature animation as it did.

    Pixar’s most extraordinary creation, perhaps, is its repeatable process for creating stories that audiences will want to see. I don’t mean a “formula,” but a way of incubating stories: putting story development in the hands of the director and providing regular feedback from a director’s peers.

    Happy birthday, Pixar.