back to article Jobs: 'I'll spend my dying breath destroying Android'

Never one to pussyfoot around his deep hatred for rivals and traitors, Steve Jobs chucked some choice epithets at Google boss Eric Schmidt and his products after the Apple-Google rift opened in 2007. Android made Jobs furious, according to snippets from a new biography Steve Jobs as reported by AP. When the Google mobile OS …

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  1. Sir Cosmo Bonsor

    I've said it before and I'll say it again

    What a complete arse that man was.

    1. Him over there

      Jeez, what a baby.

      1. g e

        He was

        By the sound of it

    2. The real Adrian W
      FAIL

      Larry's not that bad

      OK, so they did totally rip-off the iPhone with Android and are trying to do the same to Facebook with Google+. And they have a monopoly on web advertising. But that's no reason to hate on Larry Page that much.

      1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Android was in development before the iphone came out and has a completely different user interface. How can that be considered "ripping off"?

        1. aThingOrTwo

          This is how...

          The user interface and user interaction model changed dramatically in response to the events of 10th January 2007.

          Anyone who thinks different should just google "Android Prototype". It looked a blackberry, arguably the best/most popular smart phone of the day (in North America).

          Button phone to iPhone clone in the space of a couple of years.

          1. Lance 3

            And Apple copied that of others; SE P800. Guess what NO BUTTONS!!!!! Sure you could have the keypad on the phone, you could also remove it too. That was in 2002! So did Google copy Apple or did Google copy the likes of SE or even Qualcomm with the pdQ that was released in 1998.

            1. aThingOrTwo

              P800, good for its time, but...

              But would you not say... prodding a resistive touch screen with a stylus and then flipping up a flap to prod some buttons is a rather different user experience to manipulating a large capacitive display with your fingers?

          2. This post has been deleted by its author

          3. Graham Dawson Silver badge

            Your argument seems to be "Apple made a thing, then something similar came along to exploit a similar market, therefore they are ripping off apple". By that logic apple are ripping off... HTC, who released the Wallaby (aka O2 XDA, Qtec 1010 and others) a full four years before the iphone, with a full-featured touch-screen interface. Icons on a grid...

            There was a trend towards touch-screens before Apple glot the iphone out. Android was following that trend. Apple was following that trend.

            Sorry, you lose. Apple may have marketing success but they did not invent this interface, and they cannot claim they are being ripped off by something that is merely *similar*, yet different enough to be noticeably so, and which is simply following the prevailing paradigm.

          4. Giles Jones Gold badge

            Exactly, Android was originally created by people from Danger who created the T-Mobile sidekick. So to think they would create a radically new touch screen UI is laughable.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          that maybe so...

          but I think the problem is to do with Schmidt may have 'stole' the idea given the access he had in both companies.

          Basically if Schmidt wasn't there. There's a chance either Android would never have come by or Google would be launch Android 2 - 3 years after the initial iPhone launch which would've given Apple complete dominance and probably saved Blackberry, Palm and Nokia from going under this quickly.

          Well we'd never know, is not like we were there first hand to be able to tell. That's why it's never a good idea to tell anybody else about good ideas.

        3. Giles Jones Gold badge

          It was around a long time before iOS and the iPhone sure, but there's a lot more besides the UI to be designed and perfected.

          But I would say that Android couldn't have possibly copied the iPhone if it had been released first, but it wasn't. It was released almost a year after.

          So Schmidt was obviously waiting to see the finished product and listen in to the strategy that Apple were proposing (he was sitting on the board so was privy to such information). Once the iPhone was a success they knew all to well what to do when launching the Android platform.

          Anyone that thinks businesses don't operate like that is seriously deluded. There can be some rather nasty people working at companies at times. People working for one company but secretly directing customers to their own personal company. It's not legal but it happens.

          1. Colin Millar

            Nothing illegal

            There's nothing inherently illegal about "working for one company but secretly directing customers to their own personal company". It would be a contract matter.

            And copying the strategies of succesful companies is nowhere near protected. Otherwise the first guy to buy low and sell high woudl be the only game in town.

        4. Chronic The Weedhog
          Devil

          Speaking of rip-offs

          Has anyone here checked out IOS5 yet? I installed it over the weekend on 2 iPhones I have at home, and found that IOS5 rips off Android's pull-down notification tab in several ways. Sure, they're cosmetically different, but the underlying structure, and purpose are nearly identical.

          Now, don't get me wrong.. I'm no fan of Apple. For that matter, I absolutely hate the iPhone... it's too dumbed-down for my tastes, and I actually *could* like the platform a lot more, if it weren't for their development policy. Maybe their grandparents need technology that will *save them from themselves*, but I don't, and generally I refuse to buy any computing device unless I can hack it, mod it, or otherwise change it. This isn't always the case, but when the possibility is there, I take advantage of it.

          Jobs... what an arsehole!

          1. Chris007
            Trollface

            @Chronic The Weedhog - eh?

            How does "I'm no fan of Apple. For that matter, I absolutely hate the iPhone"

            square with your earlier statement

            "I installed it over the weekend on 2 iPhones I have at home"

      2. sisk

        "they did totally rip-off the iPhone with Android"

        Only in the sense that Apple ripped off all the existing MP3 players when they came out with the iPod.

      3. zen1

        @ Adrian W

        Then using your logic, why wouldn't Mercedes-Benz sue the hell out of every auto manufacturer on the face of the earth, for hundreds, if not thousands of "rip off's"? As much as I hate to admit this, Job's didn't really own the concept of a "smart phone". I distinctly recall RIM, Palm and HP (pocket PC) having similar products pretty much come and go before the iPhone ever showed up on anybody's radar.

    3. Earl Jones Of Potatoes
      Childcatcher

      $5 billion

      In a way this shows that the advertiser giant which our media like to call "tech giant" acknowledged that android infringes on patents held by apple. That's quite revealing and interesting if google offered to settle it with $5 billion.

      Say what you like about the man, he has principals and isn't shy to tell it as it is.

      1. Mark Stewart

        That is to say that IF he offered $5 billion.

    4. Ilgaz

      he could be

      If you knew a bit of apple history, especially the case of them between microsoft and windows 1 at Japanese market, you wouldn't be that suprised.

    5. henrydddd
      Pirate

      sad patent laws

      If they had the same patent/copyright system when the car was invented, Ford would be the only car you could find on the road. All other cars look similar to Fords and have about the same shape.

      1. Nigel 11
        Thumb Down

        Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

        ... which is why software patents should be scrapped, and why Jobs should have been happy rather than angry.

        The right form of protection for software is copyright, as for books. Copying chunks of code is illegal. Creating new code that offers the end-user a similar look and feel, or which solves the same problem using the same mathematics, should be completely legal. Imitation ....

  2. LarsG

    I ONCE SAID OF JOBS......

    I might not like what he stood for but I respected his opinion. Now it appears he really was a wa***r.

    May Android come to haunt him.

    1. alwarming
      Megaphone

      I wouldn't be so quick to trust the word of a biographer trying to make a quick buck on his next release.

      1. Tomato42
        Facepalm

        Because Jobs wasn't making his reality distortion field apparent every second time he opened his mouth, yeah, right.

        You must be holding the book wrong, or something.

        1. alwarming
          Coffee/keyboard

          @Tomato42

          So if someone doesn't share your views, s/he must be a coolaid sipping fanboi, eh ?

          Fact of life : some people do grow up and their world is not a simple black & white.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apparently, nobody ever wrote an OS for a phone before crapple!

  4. Zot

    How do people expect him to behave?..

    ...like Jebus?

    No... a ruthless business man and showman? Well, that's more like it.

    1. Hardcastle the ancient

      downvoting wierdness

      i can understand some of the downvoting above, but not on this one. What is it with some people?

      1. Goat Jam
        Pint

        Downvoters

        I've given up on trying to figure that out.

        I reckon there are just a big bunch of really sad fan boys on all sides who just reflexively down vote everything that even touches on their field of obsession in a negative fashion.

        Maybe there are a whole lot of /. refugees who haven't quite figured out that there is no karma whoring here?

        There might be a few shills in there too but I don't think there are a lot.

  5. Furbian
    Go

    Destory Android? Not happening...

    .. when you're selling a £500 phone, impressive though it is, and the opposition, i.e. Android, can be bought at half the price, and are available on phone contracts for next nothing.

    A Mac owning friend got a Galaxy S2, because it was £50 on his contract. I got a Motorola Atrix on an 18 month £10 contract (historic), and bought my daughter a slightly used one for £200. It's dual core, has a screen as sharp as an iPhone, but the screen so is so much larger, in a similar size case to the iPhone 4. I couldn't justify waiting for a larger screen iPhone, and gave my iPhone 4 to the missus.

    The transition from seamless iTunes/Outlook syncing to the mess that exists on Android was painful, but we've done it, because it was so much cheaper.

    1. Mark 65

      With a ~$188 tear down price on the 4S and a $649 unlocked retail price I'd say they are set to be the creator of their own problems. I don't begrudge them a margin but I won't be letting them take the piss.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Calling Android a copy of the iPhone is a bit of a lie.

    Wasn't Android in development well before the iPhone was released and starting with a company that was not then owned by Google?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      We're not talking about the platform as a whole or the back end technology, that's largely irrelevant. It's all about the UI and you can't seriously say that the iPhone UI hasn't inspired Android?

      Look at the Android prototype, it's like a Blackberry. Amazing how it suddenly became all touchscreen after the iPhone 1:

      http://gizmodo.com/334909/google-android-prototype-in-the-wild

      Of course, if you're going to go on about what came first then iOS is built on OSX which is build on NeXT which was around in the 1980s. Android is built on Linux which was released in 1991.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Not really true......

        Actually if you want to go on about what came first the GNU project was announced in '83 and was born as an open source implementation fully comptible with Unix, which was born in the '60s.

        1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

          Palm OS

          seems to spring to mind unbidden

          Does anyone see similarity between iOS components listed above and my ancient Tungsten T3 (grid of icons, lack of buttons, soft keyboard when needed)? Apple may have put them together in a better sleeker way, but they did not invent that stuff. This fits in with earlier Apple history (Xerox work on GUIs anyone). Again, Apple may have combine elements better than others before, and that is to be applauded, but they also often stood on the shoulders of giants.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Palm OS

            Whilst I totally agree with your sentiment and the first part of your statement, the second half which you use as a support for your position is erroneous. Apple didn't just copy the Xerox GUI, they bought out the rights to it and also employed the staff who had actually worked on it to develop the original MacOS. It's a not the same as simple plagiarism, and is in fact exactly what Google did with Android - bought out the early development then created something of their own with it.

            However, Apple still haven't a leg to stand on by attacking Android over UI issues. Neither can anyone who says Android is a rip-off because it abandoned buttons - I seem to remember a plethora of buttonless touch interface Palm devices and the idea of having an icon-based touchscreen mobile OS UI was commonplace with Win Mobile at the launch of the first iPhone. Simply binning hardware buttons in favour of software isn't a rip-off, it's a logical technological step to improve profits for anyone faced with releasing devices with different localisations. Standardise the hardware and then customise the software - it's nothing new in the technology sector.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Slow down there..

      It's been said before and it will be said again: take a good look at Android pre- and post the iPhone introduction.

      If we really think about it, this iOS vs Android 'war' is pretty pathetic: are some of projecting our inner frustrations onto software? Is this what living in an 'advanced' society does to us? Taking things a step further, why are so many people hating on and ragging on Jobs? What did he ever do to you? Negative comments about Jobs seem to automatically get a bunch of 'thumbs ups'. If you don't like him, then don't talk about him. If you don't like Apple's products don't buy them (same goes to the "Apple-is-best" crowd).

      As for Anna Leach, I'll bet she cannot find proof that Jobs actually 'hated' a rival —traitors, maybe but not rivals. Do you know how much energy hate takes up? With so many rivals out there, how would he ever have found the time to manage Apple, Pixar?

      Let's enjoy our Sunday and not let all the bitterness and jealousy get the best of us.

    3. jubtastic1

      Almost every thing you just said is true

      Android was in development (publicly), prior to 2007, and Google did buy the company, but prior to the iPhone launch Android was an obvious blackberry rip, top half screen, bottom half keyboard, the interface was also BB inspired, with a dock of apps along the bottom of the tiny screen and a hardware joystick for navigation.

      After Apple unveiled the iPhone all that work was basically thrown in the bin and replaced with a full size screen, soft keyboard, capicitive touch screen and a grid of icons.

      Don't take my word for it though, google it for yourself.

      1. Peter 48
        Stop

        nonsense

        going b your logic the very first android phone to be released would obviously be a carbon copy of the iphone. Just what the T-mobile G1 is with it's full slide out querty keyboard, four buttons on the front and trackball navigator. oh, wait...

        Learn a bit more about mobile pc & phone development. you would find that the iphone is nothing more than an evolution of the windows pocket pc or blackberry devices {and an obvious copy of the palm os interface from 2001), dropping the need for a stylus by making making everything bigger and more finger friendly and simplifying the phone design by focusing on just a screen and ditching a separate keyboard. this proved to be a popular idea, so everyone else followed a similar evolution. Apple didn't invent the smart phone or a touch only interface.

  7. dcd

    Well he fucked up there then.

    So he was delusional as well as the rest.

  8. Captain TickTock
    Thumb Down

    Grand Theft..

    thus spake one proud of shamelessly stealing ideas:

    3rd party apps,

    applications,

    oh and that little idea from Xerox

    1. nematoad

      Quite right

      This from the man who quite shamelessly named his company Apple Computer knowing full well that the name Apple was already taken by The Beatles for their own company Apply Corps.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who's surprised by this "revelation"...?

    Sounds like typical technology corporate CEO behaviour to me.

  10. exanime
    FAIL

    ...and so you did...

    hope it was worth it for you Steve...

    How sad to see the most this guy desired on his death bed was to see other people failing... kind of funny when you think of all the stuff Apple "stole" from others in the very same fashion

    You usually see people about to die with an altruist view of life, forgiving, forgetting, trying to make the world a little better... not this guy

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Usually see people about to die...

      "You usually see people about to die with an altruist view of life, forgiving, forgetting, trying to make the world a little better... not this guy"

      How do you know? Haven't we all said similar things at different times in our life? I hate you, I'll never forgive you, I'll kill you etc... etc... Usually uttered in anger and seldom carried through to our last week, never mind our last breath.

      Unless I am mistaken, this article is reporting about something he said long before he died. I haven't seen a report to say that he was still doggedly pursuing this goal for this reason to the day he died. He might have, but I haven't see any such reports. I think it's a bit harsh to pass judgement so absolutely on a man who has, in fairness, very recently died.

      Don't get me wrong, I detest Apple's business practises and I strongly believe they came from Steve so I am not a big ol fan boy jumping to the defence of my hero. I just think your post has a little too much unfounded vitriol for a dead man who hardly sought the oppositive of a better world.

      1. exanime

        It seems a fair conclusion to make...

        .... somebody with an incurable cancer diagnosis says he spend his dying breath doing xyz... seems pretty clear to me that he was well aware he was in the last run... certanily not the same as saying "I hate xyz" in the heat of the moment.

        This was a calculated comment from a guy who knew he had short to live to a person who was recording his biography... not a "heat of the moment" kind of comment. Jobs had cancer long before Android was an issue for him.

        Regarding passing harsh comment about somebody who just died I respect your opinion.. but honestly I hate how the most horrible people (certainly not Jobs) become almost saints once they pass away.... if there is any justice they should be regarded as what they were... in his case, a hateful, greedy control freak... with a talent for business and marketing....

        I do recognize however I am very bitter at the media attention to Jobs and the lack of media attention to Ritchie so I am certainly biased in my opinions

  11. Pypes
    Meh

    Pot, kettle

    I'm sure there are some ex-Xerox employees who would have liked Mr Job to have elaborated on that whole "stolen product" remark.

    1. Frank Bough
      FAIL

      Read your history

      Apple PAID Xerox for what they took away. It was a legit deal, not a rip-off.

      1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

        As I recall

        a law suit was threatened by Xerox, and Apple hastily withdrew its case against Microsoft on "look and feel"

        The case was settled, making it legal in retrospect, I guess.

  12. Asgard

    It appears the Reality Distortion Field was strongest at its source

    I'm sorry he is dead and I'm sorry he died so young but he didn't invent the stuff he clearly (and therefore frankly arrogantly) thought he had invented. He just used what others invented, provided he could impose his ruthlessly minimalist design ethic on all his company released. That in turn made easy to use products, but he didn't invent it, but it looks very much like he really did believed his own hype.

    No wonder he was so convincing when he was deluded enough to even believe it himself. But then who (in his company) would have dared to challenge his views and to have tried to change his perception, by openly question his views when many of his employees were even afraid to get into a lift with him, for fear they would be out of a job by the end of the journey!

    They guy was a control freak and that is extremely well documented. That helped him make good minimalist design choices, but its increasingly evident he was deluding even himself about who the real inventors were and that is frankly a disservice and very unfair to the real inventors of the technology Jobs incorporated into his products. But then control freaks are always self centred because ultimately (and almost by definition) they want to control others.

    I'm sure his fans won't like what I've said, but then the truth hurts people who want to distort reality (for whatever reason).

    1. studentrights

      Microsoft and Google didn't invented anything either

      Microsoft and Google didn't invented anything either, by your standard.

      Most products evolve based on prior work often established by others.

      The genius is turning those products in to usable devices that someone would want to by.

      The Windows tablet market was a true failure. Apple changed that with iOS and that's innovation.

  13. HollyHopDrive

    what i likrd was......

    .....that Android had copied ios.

    Let me just say, that's right like Er....

    Icons and a touch screen , yes the g1 had icons and a touchscreen.

    But then let's see who had these first.....

    Cut and paste

    Multitasking

    Voice control

    Flash player ;)

    Alternate keyboards

    Customizable desktop

    Oh hang on, they are different because ios doesn't have all those, or even get them first.

    What a twonk that man was....

  14. JaitcH
    FAIL

    Jobs gone and Androids stll here: guess he missed that goal!

    It would appear that the Apple lawyers are running with he baton now.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rich and successful he was, nice he wasn't

    So what's new?

    He may have had deep hatred for rivals and traitors, but he never refrained from stiffing his comrades, friends or partners.

    And had Lasseter and his team hadn't performed their magic (despite Jobs' efforts to the contrary), Jobs would have long been forgotten, and died a mere millionaire has been.

  16. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    Two words...

    You Failed!

  17. Mike Judge
    FAIL

    So Steve how's that war going?

    LOL, from what I can see both Google and Apple make smartphones (like Ford and Toyota make cars), and Apple are the ones stealing stuff.

    I mean iOS5 steals Android notifications, it steals Androids voice control, iOS4 stole Android's multi-tasking and folders.

    I’m betting that iOS6 will steal Android widgets.

    So how’s that mission to destroy Android going then Steve???? Not very well it seems....

    1. studentrights

      Android steals...

      Android steals Mac notification, voice control, multi-tasking and widgets .

      Ah, maybe the first tablet was the Newton? No, it was the in the Movie 2001, right?

      Did you know Edison didn't invent the light bulb...

      "Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light." - wikipedia

      Did you know Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile... he just made it practical to buy and use.

      Steve Jobs did the same for MP3 players (iTunes), iPhone and iPad.

  18. Ramazan
    Thumb Down

    Abe Lincoln must die

    I totally agree with Jobs WRT Schmidt. Weirdo muzdie 100%, but bringing this up jut after Steve's death is at least unethical.

  19. Ramazan
    Mushroom

    cheap iClones

    Steve hasn't deserved this, at least not even close to the degree that Bill Gates had (remember IBM PC and its clones)? Compaq is dead, thanks G-d, but IMO that was too small price for their thievery.

    1. Naughtyhorse
      FAIL

      wtf do pc clones have to do with M$??

      sure IBM signed a bit of a boneheaded deal that didn't prevent M$ selling to anyone else. But that says more abut IBM's inability to see the market than anything else.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who would have believed ..

    Steve Jobs was really Steve Ballmer in a turtleneck.

    What a sad indictment ...

  21. PyLETS
    Linux

    Jobs took multiwindowing from Xerox/Unix

    The X Windows system to be precise, Jobs did with that what Android did with the IPhone. I'm sure that like X, the IPhone was a genuinely innovative product, and Android ripped off some key design elements and repackaged these at a much lower price point. But that is how technology gets from early expensive adoptions to mass markets, and Apple have taken as much or more from others than has been taken from them.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Specifics

    What exactly was Jobs accusing them of stealing? Seriously, I mean specifically.

    If he's accusing them of robbing the idea of installing apps on a phone, Symbian and WinMob have him beat there. If it's touch screens, then once again WinMob has it beat. The only thing that really sticks out is the app store. If that's what it is he thinks was 'stolen', then some guy with a webpage full of Java midlets has him beat (RIP my Nokia N90). Maybe I'm missing the point and this is purely about patents for outrageous 'features' such as "touch screen scrolling", etc...

    1. Rolf Howarth

      Before

      This is what the Android phone looked like before the first iPhone was released

      http://daringfireball.net/misc/2011/08/white-android-prototype.jpg

      Enough said :-)

      1. Dr. Mouse

        Yes, it changed drastically from prototype stage to the final product... I've never seen that happen before!

        You could argue that Apple "stole" their design from the WinMo phones HTC has been producing for years. In the end, IMHO, they are very different.

        And I second the comment above about Apple copying Android's notification bar in iOS 5. But, in the end, such features do get passed around technology as it evolves. This doesn't mean they are copying, exactly.

        And I would point out, too, the blatant copying Apple pulled in it's early days. Pot, meet Kettle.

      2. Random Handle
        FAIL

        @Rolf

        What happened to the other half of that photo?

        http://cdn.ubergizmo.com/photos/2007/11/android-prototype.jpg

        1. John Bailey

          You really need to ask?

          All Apple positive data tends to be cherry picked. Why would this be any different?

  23. vincent himpe

    Luckily

    Xerox PARc is no longer around... Niether is Douglas Engelbart.

    They may have spent all the pennies they had to destroy appel. After all, that windowing system and mouse point-n-click business was their idea with the NLS and xerox alto ...

    1. paulll
      Headmaster

      Umm ... www.parc.com, seems to be up-to-date? And they did butt lawyers at one point, but it didn't go very far as they had already made a deal with Apple. Which is not, of course, the same as saying that Steve Jobs invented everything :p

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Destroy Android ?

    Alas, this was the only, biggest failure of Mr. Steve Jobs. Millions of people are just happy with their inferior Android.

    Full disclosure: I do not own any of them since I prefer to remain smart and keep my phone dumb.

  25. LaeMing

    Well,

    ...he had destroyed an entire line of emerging handheld devices before.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    STEVE JOBS THIEVERY

    And the Apple and Mac didn't rip off Xerox's desktop paradigm that had clickable icons, programs running in separate windows, a mouse pointer, etc.,etc.?

    And Steve Jobs didn't STEAL the labour and lives of sweatshop workers in poor nations, driving 14 recently to commit suicide? One suicide attempt failed and the person ended up in hospital paralysed from the waist down with multiple-organ damage.

    Sweatshop labour does NOT develop an economy because the workers never earn enough to stimulate domestic demand - it's 100% EXPLOITATION.

    Just what was Steve Jobs' contribution to the development of the computer? I don't see one. I just see a man who stole from others, who sold retail products I've never used and don't need.

    And let's not forget it was his partner, Steve Wozniak, who did all the real work building the first Apple computers.

    1. bluegrm

      suicide

      I'm no Apple fan, and no fan of production processes in the far east (though I like most others benefit from them). My understanding though was that the suicide rate for the company producing iphones was comparable to the general population in China... and that the number was high as they have a large number of employees. Just sayin'.

  27. Rustybucket
    FAIL

    Hypocrisy much?...

    ... because Apple never stole any ideas from anybody. [/sarcasm]

  28. Hasham

    A bit rich of Jobs to cry about theft...

    when Jobs had few issues about stealing actual money from his supposed friend Steve Wozniak, on the Breakout project.

  29. Stefing

    Well...

    That was his dying breath totally wasted then!

    Never trust a man who goes for "natural remedies", even when his life depends on it.

    Magical, my arse!

  30. Syren Baran
    Mushroom

    What does that remind me of?

    Ah, now i remember him.

    http://bit.ly/p6cMEP

  31. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Pint

    Rs Sir Cosmo Bonsor

    is that a bigger arse than Bill Gates?

    You might hate him but love or hat him, his company has changed the way we interact with technology.

    Sure, hardly any of the things they did were truly original, but you can't get away from the fact that they put it all together and produced stuff that 'just worked' (well mostly). They raised the bar. A bar that many other manufacturers are struggling to get over.

    So, by all means hate him but you ave to admire him all the same.

    Complete Arse?

    Hardly.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      *retch*

      " but you can't get away from the fact that they put it all together and produced Kate Winslet's tits proferring cold lager, changing the way we interact with ourselves and each other for ever"

      Getting really sick of hearing this spouted as fact without any kind of evidence. Yes, yes you can get away from it. Macs aren't very good and cost too much. ipods were plain crap for several years and cost too much. Now they work(tm) but still cost too much. iTunes is still crap. Ipads are lovely but don't do anything. And they cost too much. iPhones are reportedly not very good at making phonecalls. And they cost too much. And their service is the shits. Seriously, awful, awful company with awful products.

      Like many others, I'm sure, my experience of digital media started with mainaining a RealAudio archive parallel with my Minidisc collection, before moving to mp3s and a chinese knock-off of the Sony solid state players that predated the ipod by several years. I used players like that right up until I got my Berry with, of all the magical things, an SD-card slot.

      Apple, let us be clear, did not change the way I interact with technology one iota. And I know I'm not alone.

  32. Error Message Silver badge
    Gimp

    Of course, Jobs over looks the fact that....

    Of course, Jobs over looks the fact that just about everything Apple did was, by the definition he applies to others, "stolen". The fact is that Jobs took what others did first, and refined it into his products to produce things that were even better.

  33. Ed 11

    I've owned one Android...

    ... and it was called the HTC Wildfire. It was a cheap POS and frankly it left me with such a bitter taste that I'm not sure I can bring myself to try it again.

    It'll be Windows or iOS for me going forward.

    1. CmdrX3
      FAIL

      And what did you expect. If you buy a budget smartphone, why would you expect the performance of a high end one. I don't go out and buy a Kia and expect it to perform like a Porsche, get a grip.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Poor comparison...

      ... you can get the upgraded Wildfire S for about 1/4 the price of an iPhone. It's an entry level smartphone. I've got one, it's pretty good value, but it's never going to compete with a device costing 4 times as much. If you want an Android handset that out performs the iPhone 4S, you'll have to spend at least 1/2 as much on one. LOL

    3. Arctic fox
      Thumb Down

      Which Wildfire are you talking about?

      It surely cannot be the Wildfire that HTC got showered with praise for because it brought a level of build quality to the sub-£300 price point that had not been seen at what was then regarded as the low-price end of smartphone space? Or the same Wildfire that was the very first phone to have Wifi at that price point? The same phone that a large number of reviewers described as a break-through in terms of the specs on what was then an entry level phone pricewise - that Wildfire? I do not know which piece of shit you bought but it cannot possibly be the same Wildfire as the one I bought as my introduction to "smarphonery".

  34. wobbly1
    Unhappy

    sad.

    What a shame he died with such a stiflingly negative wish. I wonder what the floppy haired idealist young Jobs would make of the embittered older man? Suing as often as innovating, working hand in hand with big media, producing fashion and fad instead of revolution.

  35. asdf
    WTF?

    hmm

    I would hope if my last dying days I would care about things other than some lame capitalism dick measuring contest. Sad really as he sounds more like Willy Wonka than anything.

  36. Craigness

    Right and Wrong

    He's wrong about docs but google does have too many adequate products. He's wrong about android though, and has no right to call it stolen since he incorporated android features into the iphone.

    Google's main weakness compared to Apple is marketing, and showing how amazing their products really are. I saw a video about Lion and thought that the thing to send files to other Mac owners on your network was pretty cool. Then I shared a document in google docs. It was only later that I realised I'd done what a Lion user could do, but I didn't need my friend to be on a mac, on my network or even online. Google docs has the superior sharing and collaboration method, but it lacks the wow factor that Apple creates.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sharing files with local machines... I think I heard that one before, without the need for each OS to be the same.

      I think it had something to do with CIFS.... and sharing files across the net? FTP met my needs decades before.

      1. Craigness

        wow

        I was more concerned with the relative wow factors and the relative usefulness, not the newness of the functionality.

  37. Havelock
    Angel

    If he really said this - given he knew he was about to cash in his chips - then he really was a complete arse (rather, more of an arse than I had thought)

  38. nyelvmark
    Unhappy

    Jobs found his forté

    ...when all those Apple II clones threatened to destroy Apple. He discovered that Apple's legal department could make more money than the rest of the business, by securing damages from clone-makers.

    But the Apple II was entirely made from off-the-shelf components. Only the circuit-board and the boot program (in ROM) were defensible as IP. As Apples became more sophisticated, it became possible to make a functionally-identical device which didn't directly copy anything.

    Apple's now very large legal department therefore began to focus on "look and feel" litigation. This was also fairly successful, although they were unable to prevent Microsoft beating the pants off them with Windows, which was about as obvious a copy of the Mac OS as you could imagine.

    Jobs' obsession that lawyers pwn engineers seems to have been with him until his death. I hope he was wrong. But then, I'm an engineer. Maybe lawyers and marketeers like Jobs do more to enhance the human experience than we do. I hope not.

  39. impulsive4265
    Trollface

    FWIW

    Clearly that last breath wasn't worth very much.

    -Sent from my Android.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    It's IOS that's going to be undone.

    It's a real shame that he was so hateful. I have some level of compassion because he was a sick man, and that might have had an impact. But it's that type of over the top diva behavior that reflects on Apple fanboys and their condescending stance on the rest of us.

    Just imagine for a second that Android was not there. Apple would swallow the entire smartphone business and there would be no competition, no improvement, no open-source alternatives, and always a systematic heavy profit cut on app developers, and discrimination for those who can't afford 600$ devices. Plus you would have an even greater tax evasion scheme than the one already in place for Apple. That's why men of vision like Steve should always be challenged and sometimes put in their place. And Android puts Apple back in its place, the place of people who crave a standing at all cost but have no clue about what a sustainable IT environment is about. Of course the Iphone is a nice phone and all that Apple developed has value. But it's important to put in leash that religion. Because thinking different is about having different choices. How many Iphone/Ipad users go even as far as pressuring their friends and families to buy Apple products? We've all seen it.

    RIP Steve, but make no mistake, if Apple sets out to leverage its capital and destroy legitimate businesses, it will be its undoing. Already they're doing it with litigation. But with the new ARM chips that can process desktop OSes and Android and the Koreans pushing hard, and user demand, things will change. It's important to stand up for freedom because this concept is something that applies to technology, not just to legal babble.

  41. Nick Gisburne
    FAIL

    Epic fail on that then

    Dying breath duly spent. Android not destroyed.

    Bugger.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    History...

    I don't hold any particular favour of one side or the other, but a bit of history may explain Steve's anger: For several years, while Apple were developing the iPhone, one of the senior board members at Google was non-exec on the board of Apple. It's inconceivable (I use the word, I know what it means!) that the Google guy didn't know about the development of the iPhone. Google then bought a company making a phone OS.

    I make no suggestion of wrong-doing, but I can see how someone in Steve's position would be really, really pissed off.

    1. Craigness

      Well observed

      Google bought a pre-existing phone OS in August 2005, the year Apple started the R&D that would lead to the iphone. But did they steal anything? Android was already in development, so it's no that. Apple didn't have a business model around a phone at that time, so it's not that either. Have they stolen anything since? The concepts and design of the iphone already existed in various products so it's impossible to say Google stole from Apple or that Apple did not themselves steal. The Android business model seems to be moving closer to Apple's, with the release of Google Books and Google Music, but similar business models are competition, not theft.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Craigness

        I was trying to make a point that I am not making a judgment, but maybe I didn't do too well. I'm not accusing anyone of stealing anything, these accusations are made again and again by many people about various different developments in IT history (MS ripped off Apple, Apple ripped off Xerox, etc, etc.) and it's usually without all of the pertinent facts. I was merely trying to say why Steve might have been so pissed off. I will add to what I said - and again, I'm not accusing anyone of stealing anything - that the OS which is now Android was purchased by Google when it was a Blackberry-a-like, it is currently an iOS-a-like, or at least it is sufficiently similar to be accused of that.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >"someone in Steve's position"

      "Steve's position" = "With head up own arse, admiring the sunshine."

  43. Arctic fox

    I am trying to work out why Steve Jobs......

    ........apparently felt that once Apple had produced a smartphone OS nobody else thereafter had the right to produce another new one. Apart from anything else one would have to be braindead to confuse iOS and Android. The latter is very clearly *not* a copy of the former.

  44. Ron Christian

    It needs to be pointed out...

    Jobs has had his dying breath, and Android is still here.

    1. Rigsworth
      Meh

      The core businesses of both companies.

      Correct me if I'm wrong. Apple's core business is shifting tin, whilst Google's is selling information. I can understand why any business would get cheesed off for any product to eat into their marketshare but with Google now in the mix, the customer is the real winner as we now have more choice. Both companies have now keep each other on their toes and we become the main beneficiaries as Apple and the Andriod touting manufacturers bring out new innovations to attract us buyers.

      It would have been nicer if Steve saved his breath and used that big pile of cash his company is sitting on to reduce the price of their hardware.

  45. billium
    Mushroom

    I'm surprised that you have quoted from the book .. the lawyers will be after you.

  46. Maliciously Crafted Packet

    At least when Microsoft ripped off Mac OS...

    in the early 90's they had the decency to place the start menu at the bottom as opposed to the top and use different style icons to maximise or close windows. In other words they tried to make it look and feel different.

    Contrast this with Android which is a blatant iOS clone. If it wasn't for Androids clunky, lag ridden UI most layfolk would have great difficulty in telling the two OS's apart.

    Android has contributed nothing towards innovation in computing. Other more creative teams at Google should be embarrassed at being associated with what can only be regarded as a parasite OS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Err...

      To be fair, having a button on a form of menu bar has been done many times. The key difference between Windows and Mac OS at the time, was that Mac OS's menu bar contained the menu for the current, in focus, app; whereas the Windows menu bar contained buttons for each currently running application, the menu was within the window of the individual application.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      Leeches are used in medicine... think different!

      But beyond the technical aspect, Android contributed "difference"... as in "we're entitled to think (really) different and we never want to be or think like you".

      For some people, encompassing our full and varied individual nature, choices and thinking outside of the dogma of a religious-like leader is important. For some people, this is called liberty, freedom, creativity, sustainability or just being who we are.

      Not sure in your clichéd eden that such a fruit still tastes something...

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dying breath

    So that is what finished him off

  48. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I suppose it's too late to point out to Mr Jobs and his lawyer's that Samsung is not Google.

  49. Christian Berger

    What would be interresting to know...

    ...is how he turned from evil to super-evil. I mean previously he cheated on Wozniak for personal gain. That's evil, but at least understandable. However with his second time at Apple he tried to deliberately destroy the world, starting with the old Apple. For example he gave orders for everything bearing the old Apple logo to be removed. Including historical documents. Luckily much of that was given to museums.

    Maybe the trigger was Apple buying Next.

  50. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Steve Jobs raised only his ego

    Steve Davies 3, how did Jobs raise the bar if others did all the work? The iPhone, for example, uses hardware manufactured by others.

    As for software, it's UNIX that raised the bar, that's why the Mac OS is 100% Unix compliant, NOT the other way around.

    You forget - or don't know - why PCs use Microsoft's clunky OS. It's because IBM entered the microcomputer market late and needed a computer in a hurry. Ordinarily, it would have used its own processor and written its own operating system, but it didn't have time. Of course, had IBM done that, we wouldn't be using IBM PC clones today; instead, Gary Kildall's CP/M might have endured, and Bill Gates consigned to oblivion, where he rightly belongs.

    It was Gary Kildall who raised the bar, not Steve Jobs, by doing all the pioneering work in microcomputer OSes, including inventing the BIOS, still used in PCs today. Had IBM NOT cheated Gary, PCs would be using a descendent of CP/M today, and they'd likely be much nicer machines to use.

    Search YouTube for "Gary Kildall Special [PART 1 OF 3]"

    Part 2 - towards the end - gives the truth about how Bill Gates ended up with the PC Desktop monopoly (by having IBM sell a cheap clone of Kildall's OS that Gates bought vs an overpriced CP/M - overpriced by IBM to destroy it).

    Also Google without quotation marks: "Gary Kildall and Collegial Entrepreneurship Dr Dobb's Journal"

    Also search youtube for "Christmas Shopping 1983: What To Get A Hacker For Christmas!", an episode of "Computer Chronicles" which Gary Kildall co-presented in the 1980s. Steve Jobs was - and Bill Gates is - too full of his own self-importance to do anything so commonplace as that.

    Unlike Gates and Jobs, Gary comes across as a likeable person.

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Money for nothing and your chicks for free

    @Maliciously Crafted Packet, and the Apple Mac was a blatant rip off of Xerox's desktop. Beauty is skin deep. It's not the appearance that matters - it's how it performs! The iPhone, anyway, continues to use icons, etc., exactly as designed by Xerox in the 1970s. And who invented the touch-screen? It wasn't apple!

    Just incredible that Jobs & Apple get so much credit for so little.

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Epic Fail....

    ...really Steve, was it that big of a deal ?

  53. Dropper
    Angel

    Heh

    Bad luck comes in threes, or so my mother-in-law keeps telling me.. so far we have the Windows was a ripoff of the Mac OS thing (which was proven by the fact it was just as shite and unreliable, even games machines like the Amiga, Atari ST and Archimedes were far superior to either) and then Android rips off the iPhone (allegedly).

    So I wonder what is going to be no. 3. Who is going to do a number on them next.. iPad clones are just an extension of the Android vs iPhone thing, so that doesn't count and Vista/7/8 etc is just an extension of the ongoing OS clone issue. So my thought is Larry Ellison is going to try to out-martyr Steve Jobs. Perhaps make an attempt to recruit actual apostles or maybe orchestrate a genuine resurrection 3 days after his eventual passing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      Trivial ideas

      How can Android rip off the iPhone when the iPhone is a hardware device, whereas Android is just an operating system? Android uses a Linux Kernel, OpenGL, SQLite, XML, Java, Webkit open source browser engine, etc., etc. - it's NOT a rip off! The iPhone is just a portable computer. Smartphones are all portable computers. What did the iPhone originally have that was so unique?

      You could equally argue that the iPod ripped off the Sony Walkman - the idea, anyway - yet you don't hear people complain that no one should be allowed to make another Walkman-type device.

      Portable computers existed before the iPhone, so did touchscreens, and so did mobile phones with colour displays. Once upon a time there was REAL innovation.

  54. DEAD4EVER

    apple v android part 3

    heh id like to see apple take down android i really would hahaha. news flash apple the reason why android is doing so well is cause it has more selection and choice. unlike apple who prefer to stick with a premium iphone piece of junk that other phones on android are capable of doing better. if apple wants to take android down there gonna have to go through google because they made it. and apple are claiming the copycats are htc samsung motorola heh what about sony lg etc. look ast the market share apple only has roughly 20 odd percent android has near 50 percent. i wonder why maybe because androids are more affordable than apples. plus android phones reduce in price take the galaxy s 2 it was priced near 500 quid now its under 400. apples iphone 4s is between 499 and up over.

  55. someone up north

    STEVE JOB DELUDED

    steve job says:

    good artists copy

    great artist steal

    now, he shows

    deluded artist sue

  56. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product.

    Whereas the whole basis of the Mac interface was only /borrowed/

  57. Cyberspice
    Meh

    The man was dying!

    Dudes. The poor guy has been dying for years. I think I would be somewhat pissed off and ranty if my health was so poor. So he said some unadvisable things. Give the guy a break.

    P.S. I don't think Apple invented smart phones, or the point and click UI, or what ever. What they did do how ever is make them work for the man in the street. I've been using and developing Linux since 95 and other OSs (non windows) much longer. However my computers at home are OSX because they just work. I bought an iPod because when I looked at MP3 players it was the one that was easiest to use with my stuff. So when it came time for a smart phone I bought the iPod with the cellphone built in. I didn't buy the first one because it didn't do 3G. I currently have an iPhone 4 which I bought outright so I wasn't tied to a contract. I won't be getting the 4S because the 4 does everything I want it to do. In a year's time I will look again to see what there is.

    I've tried Android and in isolation its a good system now (it took until 2.2 for it to get good). My problem with Android is its just too damn messy when trying to work with other devices. And that's the crux. I know you can get device X for less money than the iPhone. So what if I save 200 quid. That's a few hours of my time. If I save a few hours over the life of the phone by spending that money then its worth buying the more expensive devices. For me time is my scarce resource, not cash.

  58. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    He "Vented his spleen" at Android.

    Oddly, next to the pancreas...

  59. D. M
    Mushroom

    Well, what do you expect?

    Any wish from such evil one, cannot be good. There is nothing would surprise me, not even it was revealed Mr Jobs was behind of all of the so called "terrorist groups", and it was Mr Jobs, those terrorists worship as their God.

    As I said before, the world is a better place without him. Just let him go, we need to move on.

  60. ken jay

    not only did he see himself better than the pc market he wanted to control how we used phones, total ass, macintosh screwed over the kids in the 80`s now iphone imac and idontgiveaflyingfcuk tries to do it again, we need something that kids are allowed to play with so we invent better not something that takes us back to the 90`s

  61. The Mighty Spang

    touchscreen? internet? grid of icons? - Handspring!

    I remember trialing a corporate service in about 2001, a handspring phone with a gsm data modem attached at the back and surfing the web (incredibly slowly mind). not a million miles from iphone as a user experience. of course add years of improvement in mobile processing, color screen, grafics co-processors etc you get something slicker. but the basics was there.

  62. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey-Ho

    The witch is dead.......

  63. Zy7ygy
    Flame

    Typical..

    ... of all the ignorant little twats posting here right now about Jobs who are COMPLETELY clueless.

    The reason Android even exists is because Apple opened the Smart Phone market up, the reason you are using a mouse with a computer is because of Apple, using gorgeous fonts again because of Apple.

    What people take for granted everyday yet criticise it pisses me off.

    Typical if the Android/ Linux/ OpenFailBoy community.

    1. anthonyj207
      WTF?

      Nice fonts...

      Apple were the first to provide an OS with native anti-aliased fonts were they?

      Oh s**t, here we go again!...

      Ever heard of Acorn Computers and RISCOS...

    2. Andrew Wigglesworth
      Happy

      I almost thought you were serious

      Do you do stand-up?

  64. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sorry, I'll get rid of my phone that I can buy a new battery off of ebay for £5, customise to my heart's content and get free apps and put my own custom kernels on there just because the Android OS is some sort of rip off.

    1. Zy7ygy

      ..

      £5 battery? Do you want it to blow up in your pocket? Or last longer than an hour?

      Yes the world wants to install custom kernels' onto there MOBILE PHONE.

      You're an idiot.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        I'm very critical of the things I take for granted

        And I'm very happy at the fact that some creationist Apple fanboy is pissed!

        Have a nice day! :)

  65. T J
    Devil

    TOO FUNNY!

    And we can't hang it on him now - because that just wouldn't be PC!!

  66. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Well at least Apple never stole anyone's ideas.

    What's that? They did? Can't be possible.

    http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/top-10-features-apple-stole-windows-966

    http://www.newser.com/story/120671/apple-stole-my-idea-student.html

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/10/07/how-apple-stole-1-of-intels-greatest-weapons.aspx

  67. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Apple shareholders -

    I'd be interested to hear what Apple's shareholders thoughts are on the former CEO's willingness to spunk $40 billion on a personal vendetta?

  68. Eponymous Cowherd

    Straight from the horse's mouth.....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

    So, stealing's fine, as long as its Apple doing the stealing?

  69. Paul

    PalmOS Clone?

    Remember PalmOS? A handheld touch screen, with icons.

    Just add gestures, kinetic scrolling and you have most of the elements of the iphone user interface.

    Move the system bar/notification bar to the top and you have a bunch of elements of android notification bar.

    Expand the user interface to a larger panel and you have an ipad or android tablet.

    The special sauce in the Apple product is the attention to the details in the hardware, and the integration with itunes, which you either love, hate or accept. None of the individual features are new or magic, the "reinvention" is the way it's a converged device.

  70. David Barr
    Happy

    Exciting!

    I wonder who is going to win this duel to the death!

  71. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Correction

    Xerox's electronic ink (or Gyricon e-paper, as they call it) uses electric charge to flip the tiny balls, not magnetism.

  72. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    The Winter Palace of computers?

    @Eponymous Cowherd, thanks for link. Wow, talk about pretentious. I'm not at all impressed by the Mac's outward appearance. I really don't know why people get so excited about the look of Apple's products - baffles me! The look is modern - i.e. very minimalist! - NOT at all like a grand cathedral, as Jobs would have us believe. All I want, anyway, is a professional, stable operating system - NOT the computer equivalent of a fur coat.

    As for Mac's "stylish" keyboard - forget looks! - I use the old, buckling-spring IBM Model 'M' keyboard. For anyone who's interested: Google "unicomp customizer 101" and for general info. about the original Model 'M' keyboards: clickykeyboards(dot)com - they last a lifetime!

    Cherry blue keyboards are similar to the buckling springs, apparently, but require less force to depress a key. I've not used one - yet!

  73. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Von Neumann's family suing Apple!

    The Mac is a copy of a computer. I think the original architects of the computer should sue Apple and prevent everyone else from making computers.

    Electronic ink was a REAL innovation. Xerox (or, rather, an engineer at Xerox) came up with the idea first. You have a load of tiny plastic balls - one half of each ball is painted black; the other half is painted white - and then you use magnetism to flip each ball to its black or white side, thus creating a screen of pixels. No need for backlighting and it's easy on the eye - just like ink on paper - BRILLIANT!

    However, Xerox's management delayed investing in the idea and that allowed another firm to re-invent the wheel and hit the marketplace first - "Eink" as it's known.

    PS Credit goes to Von Neumann for designing the particular type of architecture still used in computers today, but others came up with the design first. It's mentioned in the book "Electronic Brains" by Mike Hally.

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