An understandably emotional Eddy Cue told the Grammy pre-show audience:

“I would like to thank you for honoring Steve with the Trustees Grammy Award. Steve was a visionary, mentor and a very close friend. I had the incredible honor of working with him for the last 15 years. Accepting this award means so much to me because music meant so much to him.

He told us that music shaped his life and made him who he was. Everyone that knows Steve, knows the profound impact that artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles had on him.

Steve was focused on bringing music to everyone and in innovative ways. We talked about it every single day.

When he introduces the iPod in 2001, people asked, why is Apple making a music player. His answer was simple, we love music and it’s always good to do something you love.

His family and I know that this Grammy would have been very special to him, so I thank you for honoring him today.”

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/steve-jobs-wins-grammy-posthumously-2012-02/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/steve-jobs-fbi-file-is-released-for-the-world-to-see-2012-02 http://www.webpronews.com/steve-jobs-fbi-file-is-released-for-the-world-to-see-2012-02#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:47:15 +0000 Zach Walton http://www.webpronews.com/?p=97129 The FBI has released Steve Jobs’ file from when he was being considered for a presidential appointment in 1991 under George Bush Sr.

The file contains a lot of stuff that we already knew, such as Jobs experimenting with drugs during college and the lawsuits he was involved with while he was at Apple.

It does contain some interesting information such as high school GPA. It was a 2.65 if you were wondering. The FBI interviewed a lot of people with a common consensus being that Jobs could be trusted, but questioned his moral character. Some people, however, said that he couldn’t be trusted whatsoever.

Some of the more juicy comments on Jobs’ character are as follows:

[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.

They further stated that Mr. Jobs has integrity as long as he gets his way.

She stated she was somewhat reluctant to discuss the Appointee since she has questions concerning his ethics and his morality.

To read the rest of the almost 200 page file, it can be perused for your enjoyment here. There’s a lot of information that may be interesting for the Steve Jobs fan.

In the commercial Ah-Ken can be seen sporting Mr. Jobs’ black T-shirt and blue jeans with angel wings and a halo to top it. The company apparently feels that poking at the late American technology giant will help boost sales of their product, but has it also created negative controversy? The ad is intended to be humorous and is a hit in Taiwan, but after being revealed on YouTube in America, critics are a little offended.

What do you think about the commercial? Harmless or hurtful? Do you think Action Electronics is being intentionally rude or do you feel it’s a homage to the tech juggernaut? Let us know what you think by commenting.

Best Buy’s Super Bowl advertisement, which will appear during the third commercial break of the 1st quarter of Sunday’s big game, will feature tech inventors like camera phone pioneer Phillippe Kahn and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. Although well informed readers like yourself might recognize those names, it’s safe to say that the general public may not.

This marks a definite shift from previous years of advertising. You remember Best Buy’s big Super Bowl spot from last year right? The Ozzy Osbourne / Justin Bieber commerical that has Ozzy wondering “what the f*ck’s a Bieber?” Here it is, to jog your memory:

“Big brands like to hire celebrities,” Best Buy Marketing Chief Drew Panayiotou told Bloomberg. “We looked at everyone from George Clooney to Stephen Colbert. We believe the inventors are more than enough. I give those 125 million viewers a lot of credit. I think they’ll appreciate the story.”

Best Buy was all set to air a celeb-heavy ad, common practice for the high-cost real estate of a Super Bowl commercial. But apparently, the outpouring of tributes to the late Steve Jobs that seemed to dominate the latter part of 2011 changed something. It spurred the idea of a tech-themed commercial.

The ad is not meant to be funny – focusing more on the story of how technology is brought to the consumer. It’ll be going up against Budweiser and M&Ms in its block.

Best Buy will be fighting in a Super Bowl ad space filled with blockbuster film trailers, Seinfeld reunions, vampires, Star Wars dogs, and a Ferris Bueller rehash starring Matthew Broderick. Will it make an impact? We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Image Courtesy Trendy Gamers]

The crew at Pingdom put together a graph that illustrates how sales of iPad unites have steadily climbed in the past two years. The new need for an iPad, it would appear, has spread like a contagious addiction.

Expect to see those bar graphs shoot up as the subsequent financial quarters of 2012 are added on. But enough of the future, let us take today to commemorate the anniversary of the iPad infecting our imaginations forever and take a stroll down memory lane so as to reflect upon some of the adventurous moments that iPads have seen over the past two years, as told by WebProNews.

iPad To The Face: How Apple Revolutionizes Sibling Rivalry (included video clip below).

iPads Are Now Being Used To Assist Cerebral Palsy Patients.

Fleshlight iPad Case Takes Forever Alone To A Whole New Level [NSFW] (sadly, there is no video to accompany this piece).

Canadian Man Enters U.S. With Scanned Passport on iPad.

iPad 3 To Ship In March (Rumor).

iPad Survives 100,000 Foot Fall (included clip below).

iPad 2 Worth a Kidney to Chinese Teen.

ZooGue Dips iPad In Lava To Give You Free iPhone 4S Cases (included clip below).

I love how all of the greatest hits of the iPad are people either abusing other people abusing the iPad itself. In that case, look forward to the greater adventures of iPad with the imminent arrival of the iPad 3 later this year.

After finishing a point about immigration reform, Obama went into a bit about innovation and entrepreneurs. He said that the country should get behind everyone out there trying to become the next Steve Jobs. Here’s the full segment, for context:

You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country. That means women should earn equal pay for equal work. It means we should support everyone who’s willing to work; and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.

After all, innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in startups and small businesses, so let’s pass an agenda that helps them succeed. Tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing they need to grow. Expand tax relief to small businesses that are raising wages and creating good jobs. Both parties agree on these ideas – so put them in a bill and get it on my desk this year

During this shoutout, the camera remained fixed on Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve’s widow. She was one of the handful of guests invited personally by First Lady Michelle Obama to join her in the balcony. Check out the moment below (video will start at the relevant segment).

Jobs didn’t just want to improve the camera on the iPhone, he wanted a completely new kind of camera altogether. To that end, he contacted photography company Lytro about the very different technology they were building into their products.

Lytro’s “Light Field Camera” products handle light differently than most cameras. They capture the entire light field, not just a single pane of light in a shutter snap. In this way, you capture a moment with the camera, then decide after the fact what gets focus.

Jobs saw this technology as perfect for the iPhone and pursued getting his people together with Lytro’s people before he died.

If you’re Laurene Powell Jobs – which you’re not – you would be able to respond to the Ms. Obama in person because you would be one of a handful of guests invited to sit in the First Lady’s Box during tonight’s State of the Union Address. Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder and resident spiritual leader, has been a noted philanthropist in her own right as she’s been involved in several non-profit organizations.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Jobs inclusion among the First Lady’s list of personal guests – which also includes Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffet’s secretary; Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, Texas); and Bruce Cochrane, chief executive of Lincolnton Furniture – is a suggestion of the themes that can be expected to be addressed in the State of the Union speech tonight.

As for the rest of you? Have fun watching SOTU from the comfortable curvatures of your own sofa.

PC World is reporting that In Icon has stopped production of the controversial Steve Jobs figurine and won’t be selling it anywhere.

“Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family,” Tandy Cheung, owner of In Icons, said in a statement.

Cheung said that he was careful not to violate any Apple copyright when making the figurine. He only stopped after he received “immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs’ family.”

He says that he’s a great admirer of Jobs and wanted to make something as a tribute to him. He says that Jobs’ passing left him feeling “emptiness, sadness and a feeling of great personal loss.”

He went on to say that he made the first doll four years ago that he placed on his desk next to his Mac. He wanted to share his memento with the rest of Jobs’ fans.

As we all know, once In Icons announced their plans to sell the figurine, Apple’s lawyers jumped right on it claiming that In Icon didn’t own the likeness to Jobs.

If In Icon did go ahead with the figurine, its legality would be questionable as we’ve already covered.

The figurines that did get out there are already up on Ebay going for $224.99 to $2500.

All joking aside, four years ago today, Steve Jobs unleased the MacBook Air onto the world at Macworld.

The first MacBook Air was very innovative for its time. The innards fitting into the size of the Air was impressive and still is today, even with Ultrabooks gunning for its market. It featured an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a compact motherboard with a 1.6 GHz Intel Cord 2 Duo processor and GMA X3100 graphics processor. It also featured a 13.3 -inch LED-backlit glossy display, 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, full backlit keyboard, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, USB port and Micro-DVI port. I’m not an Apple fan, but even I’m impressed that they fit all that tech inside of a laptop that was only 19mm thick.

The first model was somewhat controversial though as it lacked an onboard DVD drive. Jobs explained it away by saying that the world was moving to wireless and things like DVD drives were a thing of the past. The company did offer an external DVD-drive for those who wanted it though.

The hardware wasn’t without its problems though as the early versions were plagued with overheating issues and wireless connectivity problems. The price was a little steep for a lot of consumers too as it launched at $1,799.

Apple has come a long way since then when they introduced the current model of the MacBook Air in 2011. It featured either a Core i5 or i7 processor, solid-state drive storage and an Intel HD 3000 processor. The pricing had gone down significantly too with the 11.6-inch model being priced at $999 and the 13.3-inch starting at $1,299.

For those who want to relive the magic of four years ago, you can watch the unveiling of the first MacBook Air by Steve Jobs below.