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

Before joining Facebook, Van Dyck was employed at Levi’s and before that at Apple – which she joined in January 2007 – where she had a hand in the marketing behind the iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

Talking about the lessons learned while working at Apple, Van Dyck explained in an interview with AdAge that the user experience is always paramount.

[The iPhone] was something created from the outside in, by how it felt to the consumer and the user experience going through it. He gave it to the engineers and said, ‘Make it fit in there.’ It was first and foremost about the user experience. And that’s how I approach marketing, that theme of focusing on the user experience and what’s important to the customer.

Apple also taught Ms. Van Dyck that her customers don’t differentiate between analog and digital experiences. “The checkout process at an Apple store is phenomenal,” she said. “You’re not there thinking ‘That was a great technology experience. ‘You’re thinking that was a great experience.’ That’s our goal for everything that we do.”

Recently, Adam Lashinsky’s book, Inside Apple, explained the degree to which Apple even takes package design seriously, with the ultimate goal always being to enhance the user experience.

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.

Now that’s taking user experience to the next level and is what truly separates Apple from the rest of the competition.

Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that’s what it’s called), though my guess is retail availability will follow roughly the same schedule as that of the iPad 2: Available for purchase a week or so after the event.

Apple last year introduced the iPad 2 on March 2, which was followed up by a launch just 9 days later. Consequently, it’s reasonable to expect the iPad 3 to launch by mid-March at the absolute latest.

Regarding the iPad 3 itself, the report confirm earlier iPad 3 reports pointing to a faster chip – likely the A6 – along with a 2048×1536 Retina Display.

What makes the request particularly sickening is that the patents Motorola is wielding against Apple are patents that have been deemed essential to technical standards. Consequently, Motorola must offer them to Apple on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms, otherwise known as FRAND terms.

Florian Mueller, who blogs extensively about patent litigation in the tech sphere writes:

I assume this relates to Apple’s sales and to all of MMI’s standard-essential patents, though the context is only one patent (the one over which Motorola has already forced Apple, temporarily, to remove certain products from its German online store. Assuming in Motorola’s favor that this was a license to all standard-essential wireless patents, the amount still appears excessive to me given how many companies hold patents on such standards and what royalty rate this would lead to in the aggregate.

If every company with essential patents to a standard demanded 2.25%, the end result would be detrimental towards technological progress. Indeed, the whole point of the FRAND system is to allow companies innovate while at the same time compensating patent holders. It’s a nice little exchange, really. Company A gets their patents incorporated into a standard, and in return, they agree to license out said patents on fair and reasonable terms.

So the core issue here is what constitutes a reasonable royalty rate for the patents in question. To this end, some attorneys contacted by the WSJ said that the rate Motorola is asking for is a bit on the price side and “may be designed to either force a settlement or disrupt business.”

While stories of scamware apps typically center on the Android Marketplace on account of Google’s lax, and arguably near non-existent, supervision policies, Apple is no stranger to the unwelcome phenomenon itself.

Highlighting the problem, The Guardian had an interesting article a few days ago detailing just how blatant some of these app rip-offs are, all the way right down to the name itself. One douchebag developer profiled in the piece is Anton Sinelnkov

He’s also the man behind an array of other familiar-sounding iOS games, including Angry Ninja Birds, Temple Jump, Numbers With Friends, Tiny Birds and Zombie Air Highway. Not to mention non-game apps with alluring titles like Lovely Girls, Sexual Offenders HD, The Horse Woman (“Warning: Adults 21_ ONLY!”) and Victorian Sexy.

It’s the games that are causing a stir among mobile developers though, especially those whose games Sinelnikov’s titles and icons have been clearly inspired by.

The dynamic is problematic on two fronts.

First, it cheats the original developer out of money. Frustratingly, hard working and honest developers will sometimes see blatant rip-off versions of their app climb up the charts, making ill-deserved money in the process.

Second, it dilutes the entire brand. If I’m looking to by Angry Birds and instead download Upset Birds, mistaking one for the other, my impression of the Angry Birds franchise will be unfairly colored by what is likely to be a cheap knock off app with a substandard user experience.

In light of all this, Apple thankfully took some steps in the right direction last week when it booted all of Sinelnikov’s apps off of the app store. I guess when a scamware app like Temple Jump (a blatant rip off of Temple Run) hits the top of the paid app chart it’s prudent to act quickly and decisevely to prevent similar apps from gaining traction in the app store.

Josh Constine of TechCrunch lays out an interesting suggestion that would help Apple combat this type of scamware:

Right now there’s only “This application has a bug”, “This application is offensive”, “My concern is not listed here”, and an open comment field. “This app is a fake version of another app” or something similar should be added. Android, Facebook, and other platform owners should ensure they have similar ways to specifically report fakes…

For example, a developer whose app receiving a certain threshold of “fake” reports, with names and logos that reach some threshold of similarity should be given a warning and certain number of days to clear up infractions before being removed from the store. Facebook launched a new anti-spam enforcement system in July after apologizing for sudden app takedowns by its automated system.

By giving users an easier way to report fakes and having an enforcement protocol they can point to, platform owners could protect users and honest developers, and make pirates walk the plank.

With a new album, titled Kisses on the Bottom, scheduled to launch this week, Sir Paul McCartney will be performing live at Capital Studios in LA, an event which will stream via iTunes.

Paul McCartney will commemorate the release of his new album, Kisses On The Bottom, with a free streaming performance that takes place 7 p.m. PST Thursday, February 9, from Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, where much of the new album was recorded.

Fans can watch the show for free through iTunes.

Kisses on the Bottom, which comes out Tuesday, February 7, via Hear Music/Concord, is a collection of standards McCartney grew up listening to, plus two new McCartney compositions — “My Valentine” and “Only Our Hearts” (which feature guest turns, respectively, from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder).

Recorded with the aid of Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall and her band — who will back McCartney for the Capitol live-stream event — Kisses On The Bottom is a personal journey through songs that, in some cases, a young McCartney first heard his father perform on the family piano.

The February 9 Capitol Studios streaming event will be the first time ever that the reverent and adventurous performances of Kisses On The Bottom will be brought to life in a live setting.

via GuitarWorld

The IPO surrounding Facebook represents a watershed moment with respect to online social communities. Whereas sites like Friendster and MySpace had their time in the sun and eventually lost momentum, Facebook has continued to grow with no end in site.

Somewhat recently, Facebook has been challenged by Google with their Google+ offering. While the reasons as to why Google, in my opinion, will never even come close to catching up with Facebook when it comes to user interaction, one of the overarching themes is that Google simply doesn’t care about connecting people in the way that Facebook does. At the end of the day, Google is an advertising company and Google+ is simply a means to that end. Facebook, meanwhile, genuinely has that burning passion for bringing the world together.

That said, I found Mark Zuckerberg’s recent letter to prospective investors particularly enlightening while also standing in stark contrast to Google’s own motivations with Google+.

The letter was included in Facebook’s IPO filing with the SEC and it reads as follows:

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do. I will try to outline our approach in this letter.

At Facebook, we’re inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television — by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer together.

Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.

There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.

We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between two people.

Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness.

At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.

People sharing more — even if just with their close friends or families — creates a more open culture and leads to a better understanding of the lives and perspectives of others. We believe that this creates a greater number of stronger relationships between people, and that it helps people get exposed to a greater number of diverse perspectives.

By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring.

We have already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections so far, and our goal is to help this rewiring accelerate.

We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.

We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.

As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.

One result of making it easier to find better products is that businesses will be rewarded for building better products — ones that are personalized and designed around people. We have found that products that are “social by design” tend to be more engaging than their traditional counterparts, and we look forward to seeing more of the world’s products move in this direction.

Our developer platform has already enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to build higher-quality and more social products. We have seen disruptive new approaches in industries like games, music and news, and we expect to see similar disruption in more industries by new approaches that are social by design.

In addition to building better products, a more open world will also encourage businesses to engage with their customers directly and authentically. More than four million businesses have Pages on Facebook that they use to have a dialogue with their customers. We expect this trend to grow as well.

We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.

We believe building tools to help people share can bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time.

By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.

Through this process, we believe that leaders will emerge across all countries who are pro-internet and fight for the rights of their people, including the right to share what they want and the right to access all information that people want to share with them.

Finally, as more of the economy moves towards higher-quality products that are personalized, we also expect to see the emergence of new services that are social by design to address the large worldwide problems we face in job creation, education and health care. We look forward to doing what we can to help this progress.

Our Mission and Our Business

As I said above, Facebook was not originally founded to be a company. We’ve always cared primarily about our social mission, the services we’re building and the people who use them. This is a different approach for a public company to take, so I want to explain why I think it works.

I started off by writing the first version of Facebook myself because it was something I wanted to exist. Since then, most of the ideas and code that have gone into Facebook have come from the great people we’ve attracted to our team.

Most great people care primarily about building and being a part of great things, but they also want to make money. Through the process of building a team — and also building a developer community, advertising market and investor base — I’ve developed a deep appreciation for how building a strong company with a strong economic engine and strong growth can be the best way to align many people to solve important problems.

Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.

And we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.

By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company.

This is how we think about our IPO as well. We’re going public for our employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we gave them equity that we’d work hard to make it worth a lot and make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment. As we become a public company, we’re making a similar commitment to our new investors and we will work just as hard to fulfill it.

The Hacker Way

As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.

The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.

Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”

Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.

To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don’t want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we’re looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp.

The examples above all relate to engineering, but we have distilled these principles into five core values for how we run Facebook:

Focus on Impact

If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.

Move Fast

Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.

Be Bold

Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.

Be Open

We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact.

Build Social Value

Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do.

Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. We believe that we have an opportunity to have an important impact on the world and build a lasting company in the process. I look forward to building something great together.

In iOS 4, Apple introduced folders. Users can group similar apps together inside a folder for easy access simply by pressing and holding an app icon – which will cause all icons to start wiggling – whereupon they can drag apps onto one another to create makeshift folders.

Okay, easy enough, and certainly a surefire way to keep things organized.

But Holt offers a nifty little way to keep things organized and efficient.

Instead of grouping apps together by category, one can simply create a folder of a user’s most used applications and then just drag it to the dock.

Here’s something not everyone knows, though—you can touch and hold on a folder’s icon and drag it down into the iOS dock, meaning that a whole bunch of your most frequently used apps will be accessible no matter what screen you’re on.

The tip was obvious in hindsight, but hey, that’s what makes it so great.

A lawyer for Proview Shenzhen, Xie Xianghui, is claiming that a court in the Xicheng district of Beijing is prepared to “slap Apple with a 240 million yuan ($38 million) fine,” according to the Global Times. The Xicheng district administration, though, is refusing to comment. “It is still under investigation, so no official comments on the case can be made yet,” a media officer with the administration states. The China Daily meanwhile quotes Xie as also demanding an apology, and an injunction against the sale and marketing of iPads in China.

At the core of the dispute is a 2006 agreement in which Apple bought the iPad trademark from Taiwan’s Proview Electronics for $55,000, by way of a front business known as IP Application Development. Proview says, though, that Apple didn’t win the rights to the Chinese trademark, since those were owned by Proview Technology in Shenzhen, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Proview International.

There was skepticism in 2009, when Wolfram Alpha arrived, with critics saying the approach was very limited, useful mainly for math and science facts. But the technology has come a long way, including delivering many answers for Siri, the question-answering personal assistant in the Apple iPhone 4S…

Siri accounts for about a quarter of the queries fielded by Wolfram Alpha, whose staff has grown to 200. Several large companies in health care, financial services and oil and gas recently hired Dr. Wolfram’s private company, Wolfram Research, to do tailored corporate versions of Wolfram Alpha for them. Microsoft also licenses Wolfram Alpha technology.