Obama on Steve Jobs: 'World Has Lost a Visionary'

Asia provides workers, flexibility that US can't match

(NEWSER) - Last year, President Obama asked Steve Jobs whether iPhones could be made in the US instead of Asia. Jobs was blunt: “Those jobs aren’t coming back." The New York Times takes a long look at why. In short, Asia has a surplus of engineers and factory workers who work cheaply in flexible companies—so flexible that one reportedly roused thousands of workers at midnight to produce redesigned iPhones on a massive scale. Says a former White House adviser: “If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.” More»

But he's 'not a product guy'

(NEWSER) - Tim Cook is already, if not remaking, at least tweaking Apple in his image. He’s been streamlining Apple’s corporate structure and changing some of its corporate philosophies, the Wall Street Journal reports. He has, for example, announced that Apple will now match employee donations to charities and nonprofits up to $10,000, something Steve Jobs always opposed. He’s also announced that he’s open to things like stock buybacks that were verboten under Jobs. More»

Biography zeroes in on contradiction

(NEWSER) - One thing the new Steve Jobs biography has done has tempered the saint-like portrait of him that emerged in the days after his death. Maureen Dowd in the New York Times and Farhad Manjoo in Slate focus on this part of Jobs' personality, the one through which he could be a cruel jerk to subordinates, friends, lovers, and family. "Certainly, Jobs created what Shakespeare called 'the brightest heaven of invention,'" writes Dowd. "But his life sounded like the darkest hell of volatility." More»

'Social Network' writer said to be considering the offer

(NEWSER) - Sony is making a Steve Jobs movie based on the biography by Walter Isaacson, and none other than Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin is being courted to write it, the Los Angeles Times reports. A source says Sorkin is considering the idea, but neither Sorkin nor Sony gave an official comment. Still, it seems like a good fit:

• LA Times : “Sorkin is known for penning stories about the lives of fiercely smart, if difficult, figures, of which Jobs certainly was one. Isaacson's take on the late executive as someone whose penchant for ‘magical thinking’ was both a great advantage and a fatal liability seems particularly suited to a Sorkin script.”

Don't count on getting in around 1pm ET

(NEWSER) - Apple is closing some retail stores for at least an hour tomorrow as the company pauses to celebrate the life of Steve Jobs, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . Another source tells Reuters that Apple workers around the country will be invited to watch a video feed of the celebration in Cupertino from 1 to 2:30pm ET. More»