The report was the culmination of interviews with over 30 people who knew Jobs and details his drug use along with his ability to “twist the truth”. Notably, the files author – John Cook – notes that the interviews resulted in an uncharacteristically high number of disparaging remarks about the late Apple CEO. Of course, given Jobs’ demeanor, it’s not all that surprising that he rubbed quite a few people the wrong way.

The file doesn’t disclose the names of the people interviewed as that information has been redacted. Still, the file paints an interesting, and admittedly not surprising, look into how many characterized Jobs a few decades back. Adjectives like “deceptive” and “questionable” moral character are just some examples of how Jobs was described.

Below are a few of the more pertinent excerpts.

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.”
…
[Redacted] advised that he has been acquainted with Mr. Jobs since [redacted]. He characterized Mr. Jobs as a deceptive individual who who is not completely forthright and honest.
…
[Redacted] advised that he is no longer friends with Mr. Jobs. He feels bitter toward and alienated by Mr. Jobs based on his association with Mr. Jobs at ACI. He characterized Mr. Jobs as an honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable.

The report also makes frequent mention of Jobs past drug use, something which the Apple co-founder actually embraced, and at times, recommended to others, most notably Bill Gates.

In the past, Jobs has said that taking LSD was one of the most important experiences of his life.

And as a final tidbit, take a guess as to what Jobs’ high school GPA was.

2.65

Apple arguably doesn’t just sell consumer electronic products. Rather, their mission is much broader.

They sell a complete user experience meant to imbue an emotional response when customers, for example, walk through an Apple retail store and even, believe it or not, when they open up a box containing the latest iPhone or iPod.

NetworkWorld highlights Apple’s obsessive attention to detail by pointing out an excerpt from Adam Lashinsky’s new book, Inside Apple, which describes the degree to which Apple takes packaging design as seriously as the product itself.

To fully grasp how seriously Apple executives sweat the small stuff, consider this: For months, a packaging designer was holed up in this room performing the most mundane of tasks – opening boxes.

One after another, the designer created and tested an endless series of arrows, colors, and tapes for a tiny tab designed to show the consumer where to pull back the invisible, full-bleed sticker adhered to the top of the clear iPod box. Getting it just right was this particular designer’s obsession.

What’s more, it wasn’t just about one box. The tabs were placed so that when Apple’s factory packed multiple boxes for shipping to retail stores, there was a natural negative space between the boxes that protected and preserved the tab.

What for many is an ostensibly small detail, for Apple, is a huge part of the user experience. For Apple, the iPhone, or more broadly speaking the smartphone, is anything but a commodity. They view it as a work of art, and they treat it accordingly.

And especially because Apple is a notoriously secretive company, sometimes even the most mundane of details about how the company works are shrouded in mystery, and therefore, intrigue.

A few months back, Lashinsky wrote an article for Fortune where he described, somewhat briefly, a typically-annual Apple gathering dubbed the “Top 100″. The gathering was/is comprised of the 100 employees Steve Jobs would take with him in the hypothetical scenario where he’d be forced to branch off and start anew. In other words, the best of the best.

Naturally, being chosen to attend the Top 100 gathering was an honor and an extremely coveted distinction. The individuals chosen for the gathering weren’t necessarily all high-ranking executives as low level engineers would sometimes be chosen at the expense of certain department VPs.

“Hurt feelings over exclusion were the norm, which is what Jobs expected and even relished,” Lashinsky writes.

As you might expect from a company like Apple, the Top 100 gathering was “shrouded in secrecy”, with Apple going so far as to institute a rule that prevented attendees from driving themselves. Rather, they had to drive to a pickup point and hop on a bus to the destination point, which for many years was the Chaminade Resort & Spa in Santa Cruz, California before it was moved to the Carmel Valley Ranch in recent years.

So secretive were the details of the Top 100 meeting that Apple had the meeting rooms swept for bugs beforehand. Jobs was known to forbid food servers from entering the room while products were being shown. He once encouraged attendees to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them to ensure that no one had snuck into the room.

Wow, it’s surprising he didn’t have special employees taste the food to check for poison!

Once all the over-the-top security measures were taken care of, Jobs was able to get down to business.

Once ensconced at their exclusive off-site, the Top 100 were treated to a thorough review of Apple’s product plans for the next eighteen months or so. Jobs sat at the front of the room, kicking things off with a presentation that described his vision for the company and then presiding over presentations by other executives.

Highlighting the seriousness to which Jobs took these meetings, his presentations were said to be as informative and as serious as his famous keynote presentations. Each day, there’d be about 6 presentations from Jobs and his executive crew, each coming in at about 1 hour long.

One executive recalled how nothing in those meetings was off-limits. Whereas Apple typically exerts control over the narrative behind its products, the Top 100 meeting provided an avenue where employees could discuss and debate anything they wanted without having to worry about secrecy or repercussions from questioning the powers that be.

The meetings were intended to allow the level of leadership below the executive team – people who in such a siloed and segregated company wouldn’t ordinarily interact with one another – to bond.

Tantalizingly, the Top 100 meeting also served as an opportunity for Apple to reveal upcoming products to the lucky employees in attendance.

Lashinsky notes, for example, that Apple’s retail plans along with the original iPod were both unveiled at these Top 100 meetings long before being introduced to the public. While this might not seem all that surprising, remember that secrecy at Apple is paramount and that the company has security measures in place to ensure that the only employees aware of an upcoming product are the ones working on it.

Sidenote: Given the tepid response to Jobs’ original iPod introduction, we wonder what the folks at the Top 100 thought about Apple’s first music player

Lashinsky notes that the last Top 100 retreat attended by Jobs was in November 2010 where the big reveal was the iPad 2, complete with the ingenious smart cover. This was a solid 4 months before the official iPad 2 announcement.

Products aside, the Top 100 meeting also provided Apple employees unfettered access to Jobs and his cadre of trusted executives in the form of a Q&A session. In once instance, Jobs was asked why he wasn’t more philanthropic. In classic Jobs form, he bluntly responded that it was a waste of time.

In another portion of the book, Lashinksy noted that Jobs’ goal was to create value in Apple as a company so that shareholders could accumulate wealth and give it away at their own discretion.

Jobs was notoriously stingy when it came to giving away money. He argued privately that the most philanthropic action Apple could take was to increase the value of the company to share-holders could give away their wealth to causes of their choice, not Apple’s.

Interestingly, the Top 100 wasn’t always and exclusively comprised of Apple employees. Every so often, an executive from another company would be invited along, such as Intel CEO Paul Otellini and some of Apple’s “key contacts at AT&T.”

Lastly, and somewhat comically, one former Apple manager said that many employees who weren’t invited along to the retreat would indulge themselves in a “tounge-in-cheek” Bottom 100 lunch while the chosen few were out getting a glimpse of the future with Jobs and co.

Now some of Pierro’s tricks seem a bit obvious – say when he puts his hand below the screen to presumably pick up an item – but there are certainly some head scratchers in there as well. We particularly like his streaming/drinking coke idea and attributing his milk mishap to iOS 5 still being in beta. Yes, we know, the video is a bit dated, but still worth checking out.

But in order to do so, Apple has to ensure that its employees remain tightlipped and ensuring that requires a culture of secrecy alongside an organizational structure that limits upcoming product plans to those who need to be in the know.

In Adam Lashinsky’s upcoming book “Inside Apple”, Lashinky removes some of the veneer that masks Apple’s secretive ways and provides an intriguing look into what life is actually like working at 1 Infinity Loop.

Interestingly, Apple’s theme of secrecy is often apparent from the moment an employee signs on the dotted line to work in Cupertino to the extent that new employees aren’t typically told of what their job entails until they actually beign working on it.

And lest any employee fall prey to loose lips, a security meeting from the get go stresses that employees will be promptly fired if they’re found to be blabbing to the wrong people.

A former iPhone marketing executive recounts:

Whoever headed up security came in and said, ‘Okay, everybody understands secrecy and security are incredibly important here. Let me just explain why.’ And the rationale is that when Apple launches a product, if it’s been a secret up until the launch, the amount of press and coverage and buzz that you get is hugely valuable to the company. ‘It’s worth millions of dollars,’ I remember her saying.” So there’s no confusion, the penalty for revealing Apple secrets, intentionally or unintentionally, is clear: swift termination.

Also interesting is the degree to which Apple places an emphasis on a product’s first few says on the market. Though this should come as no surprise to anyone who closely follows Apple, Lashinsky relays that Phil Schiller has in the past compared such an event to the opening weekend of a blockbluster movie.

There is tremendous emphasis on the product’s first few days, akin to a film’s opening weekend. Releasing details ahead of time would dampen the suspense. Indeed, Apple fanboys camp out in front of Apple stores in anticipation of new Apple product releases in a way that is reminiscent of the lines that once greeted a new installment in the Lord of the Rings or Star Wars franchises. That is precisely the effect Schiller desires from the day one burst of activity. “I still remember him drawing the spike over and over,” said a former Apple executive who worked in Schiller’s organization.

And the need for secrecy has a direct impact on the organizational structure at Apple and the way different teams interact with each other, that is to say, not much at all.

“It’s one thing to pressure employees to keep information from falling into the wrong hands. Apple’s twist is that those wrong hands happen to include one’s own colleagues. It is, in the words of a former employee, “the ultimate need‑to‑know culture.” Teams are purposely kept apart, sometimes because they are unknowingly competing against one another, but more often because the Apple way is to mind one’s own business. This has a side benefit that is striking in its simplicity: Employees prevented from butting into one another’s affairs will have more time to focus on their own work. Below a certain level, it is difficult to play politics at Apple, because the average employee doesn’t have enough information to get into the game. Like a horse fitted with blinders, the Apple employee charges forward to the exclusion of all else…

As a result, Apple employees and their projects are pieces of a puzzle. The snapshot of the completed puzzle is known only at the highest reaches of the organization. It calls to mind the cells a resistance organization plants behind enemy lines, whose members aren’t given information that could incriminate a comrade.Jon Rubinstein, formerly Apple’s senior hardware executive, once deployed the comparison in a less flattering but equally effective manner. “We have cells, like a terrorist organization,” he told Business Week in 2000. “Everything is on a need‑to‑know basis.””

As for what it’s like to actually work at Apple, Lashinky writes that almost no one would describe it as fun. Sure, people are passionate and focused on creating great products, but the high stress environment can often be taxing. At the same time, a few employees Lashinsky talked to said that if you’re an Apple geek, the experience there could be “magical.”

Lashinsky closes with an interesting quite from Steve Jobs that, quite honestly, we had never before.

Speaking to what it’s like to work at Apple, Jobs reportedly quipped, “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say it’s the most fulfilling experience in their lives. People love it, which is different than saying they have fun. Fun comes and goes.”

The backdrop: The San Antonio, Texas based Freetail Brewing Co. received a cease and desist letter from the Steelhead Brewing Co. (based out of Eugene, Oregon) demanding that they stop using “Hopasaurus Rex” as a name for one of their beers.

Freetail’s response back to Steelhead’s lawyers is just classic.

And here’s Page 2, which includes the Pièce de résistance.

Simply brilliant!

Curious, we moseyed on over to the Freetail Brewing Co. website and found that they have a slew of beers with interesting names. From the fitting “Rye Wit” and “Old Bat Rastard” to “Buffalo Hump 1840 IPA” and ” Invierno Inexistante”, these guys seem like the type you’d want to share a cold one with.

Related: Cleveland Browns send hilarious legal response to disgruntled fan

via Freetail Brewing

And lo and behold, Apple’s diabolical plan to brainwash the youth of North America is already underway! 6 of the 10 answers all center on Apple products, even with a surprising reference to iCloud.

And for all you parents out there, if you happen to see your child laughing in the face of danger to get his/her hands on a vintage Mac (as in the photo below), an intervention may be necessary.

Of course, children using Apple products, even as young as 2 years old, is nothing new.

The first image is from iPhoneinCanada.ca but we couldn’t find a link to the original posting.

But now it seems that Samsung has even outdone itself.

The girl starring in Samsung’s ad just happens to be the exact same girl Apple used in its iPhone 4 ads.

Here is Samsung’s ad:

And an Apple iPhone 4S ad starring the same girl.

Now for all we know, maybe this girl is an up and coming young commercial actress who just so happens to be in high-demand and works for a few advertising agencies. But given Samsung’s littered history of flat-out copying everything Apple does, it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt – remember a few months ago when a Samsung shopping display made use of proprietary Apple icons?

MacRumors also notes how the commercial attempts to evoke the same type of emotion Apple typically employs in its own advertisements.

The ad depicts a father and daughter playing with a Galaxy Tab in a sequence of shots reminiscent of Apple’s own iPad ads. The voice over says (rough translation):

You try to have fun with me, you try to win against me, you ask me millions of questions, you sit on my lap, you want to stay beside me all the time, strangely, when I stay with you time passes very quickly. This is a precious time.”

To borrow some corporate jargon from Apple, competition is great, but it’s getting increasingly harder to deny that Samsung’s blueprint solely consists of monitoring Apple and reacting accordingly.

The commercial above borrows a number of elements from previously aired iPad and iPod Touch commercials.

To wit, check out this iPad 2 commercial and note how the Samsung commercial copies the use of an app featuring a dinosaur along with a kid underneath a blanket shaped to look like a tent.

Siri, according to Mundie, is nothing more than crafty marketing, explaining that “people are infatuated with Apple announcing it.”

And as for the technology itself, well he’s equally unimpressed.

“At least as a technological capability,” Mundie explained, “you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability [in Windows Phone] for more than a year.”

Similar? Perhaps. The same? Not even close. Hell, Apple pre-iPhone 4S had voice recognition functionality but no one would venture to say it’s anywhere close to what Siri is today.

And further illustrating Microsoft’s complete lack of understanding – or perhaps just Mundie’s – behind how the masses view and interact with technology, Mundie said that Siri was deployed solely to serve as a “hammer” to preempt disappointment over the iPhone 4S not being a “completely new thing.”

Instead of taking Mundie’s corporate mumbo jumbo at face value, Jason Cartwright of TechAu decided to put Siri to the test and compare it to Microsoft’s Tellme, the voice recognition feature built into Windows Phone 7. The video below is effectively a definitive nail in the coffin of Mundie’s assertions.

via TechAu