Apple Peeved Over Steve Jobs Obituary

Leaked obit of Apple's still-living founder inspires wish list

(NEWSER) - No word from Steve Jobs on whether he made it through all 17 pages of his own obituary, published prematurely by Bloomberg on Wednesday, but news organizations all over have been having fun at Bloomberg's expense. Forbes went one step farther last night, posting a list of the five things the mag would like the Apple co-founder to create before he actually does die. More»

First road manager became guardian of group's legacy

(NEWSER) - "Fifth Beatle" Neil Aspinall, the first road manager of the legendary band who later ran the Beatles' recording company, has died from lung cancer. Aspinall, 66, was the chief guardian of the group's musical legacy after the Beatles broke up. "He vigorously fought to protect the Beatles franchise," said Beatles historian Bruce Spizer. He reignited interest in the Fab Four for a new generation of fans in the 1990s. More»

Eugene Polley created the Flash-Matic for Zenith in the 1950s

(AP) - Couch potatoes everywhere can pause and thank Eugene Polley for hours of feet-up channel surfing. His invention, the first wireless TV remote, began as a luxury, but with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies it has become a necessity. Polley died of natural causes at a suburban Chicago hospital over the weekend. The former Zenith engineer was 96. More»

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau excelled at Schubert lieder

(NEWSER) - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, perhaps the greatest singer of art songs in the 20^th century, died yesterday at home in Bavaria, the New York Times reports. He was 86. The German son of a classical scholar and a schoolteacher, Fischer-Dieskau (pronounced FEE-sher DEES-cow) studied voice in Berlin and got two years of unexpected practice singing for fellow POWs during World War II. Returning to Germany at age 22, he quickly became a singing sensation. "I passed my last exam in the concert hall," he said. More»

DC's funk pioneer is gone

(NEWSER) - Chuck Brown, who created the "go-go" genre of funk in DC in the 1970s and remained a mainstay of black Washington's culture ever since, has died at age 75, reports the Washington Post . A snippet from the paper's obituary, by Chris Richards:

• "Like a DJ blending records, Mr. Brown used nonstop percussion to stitch songs together and keep the crowd on the dance floor, resulting in marathon performances that went deep into the night. Mr. Brown said the style got its name because 'the music just goes and goes.'" Full piece here .